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LAFAYETTE AT MONMOUTH. 
* He dashed into action, leading the cavalry in a desperate charge" 



See page 145 



THE TRUE STORY 



OF 



LAFAYETTE 



CALLED THE FRIEND OF AMERICA 



BY 

ELBRIDGE S. BROOKS 

AUTHOR OF 

"THE TRUE stories" OF COLUMBUS, 

WASHINGTON, LINCOLN, GRANT, 

AND FRANKLIN 



ILLUSTRATED BY VICTOR A. SEARLES 



BOSTON 
LOTHROP PUBLISHING COMPANY 




42159 



Copyright, iSgg, 

BY 

LoTHROP Publishing Company. 



All rights resetted. 



TV/O COPIES RECEIVED. 




£20-] 






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U 



PREFACE. 

In a series devoted to telling the true stories of great Americans or of 
those whose lives had a direct bearing upon the splendid story of the United 
States of America, no man has better right to a place than the Marquis de 
Lafayette, the young and gallant Frenchman whose love for liberty led to 
a love for America that outlasted even the romantic story of the way in 
which he fought for her independence. For the whole life of Lafayette was 
a long struggle for constitutional liberty, the freedom he had seen America 
secure and which he so ardently desired for France. 

Had it not been for Lafayette, American independence would not have 
been so speedily secured ; had it not been for America, the liberation of 
France from her long bondage in tyranny would scarcely have come so soon. 
Thus Lafayette and America are inseparably connected, and it is most fitting 
that, in a series devoted to the makers and defenders of America, Lafayette, 
as the Friend of America, should have an honored place. 

But this book aims to do more. At a time when interest in Lafayette has 
been revived by the erection of a monument to his memory in the Paris he 
loved so well, by the boys and girls of the America he helped to make great, 
it seeks to show how his entire life was devoted to the cause of freedom 
and the glory of France, and to tell, in the whole story of his eventful life, 
what one man has done for the progress of humanity and the bettering of 
the world. If, from these pages, young Americans may learn not only to 
revere the memory of the noble F"renchman, but to learn lessons of per- 
sistence, fidelity, unshaken loyalty to conviction, to truth, to honor, and to 
manly endeavor, then the story of Lafayette will not have been retold in 
vain, and Americans may learn anew to honor, respect, and remember him, as 
not only the friend of America, but the benefactor of his race. 

E. s. B. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. PAGE 

HOW THE LITTLE MARQUIS BEGAN LIFE ...... U 

CHAPTER n. 

WHERE THE YOUNG ARISTOCRAT HEARD OF INDEPENDENCE . . 32 

CHAPTER ni. 

WHY THE MARQUIS RAN AWAY TO SEA ...... 46 

CHAPTER IV. 

HOW LAFAYETTE LANDED IN AMERICA ...... 65 

CHAPTER V. 

HOW THE MARQUIS CONQUERED CONGRESS ..... 8/ 

CHAPTER VI. 

HOW HE WON THE COMMANDER - IN - CHIEF ..... IO7 

CHAPTER VII. 

HOW HE FOUGHT FOR LIBERTY IN AMERICA . . . . . 1 26 



CHAPTER VIII. 

HOW "THAT boy" SERVED THE EARI. 



149 



CHAPTER IX. 

HOW HE CAME TO AMERICA FOR THE THIRD TIME .... 169 

CHAPTER X. 

HOW HE TRIED TO MAKE AN AMERICA OF FRANCE .... 185 

7 



8 CONTENTS. 

chaptp:r XI. PACE 

HOW HE FELL FROM THE FRYING - PAN INTO THE FIRE . . . 200 

CHAPTER XII. 

WHY HE CAME TO AMERICA FOR THE FOURTH TIME . . . . 2I9 

CHAPTER XIII. 

HOW HE RETURNED TO FRANCE AND FAME ..... 238 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Lafayette at Monmouth ..... 

The boy Lafayette ...... 

At Hastenbeck ....... 

The Chateau of Chavaniac ..... 

A French boy of " quality " in Lafayette's school-days 

"The duke thought it over and suggested a compromise 

A French wedding in Lafayette's day 

" The American peasants " who stood at Le.xington and Concord 

Lafayette and the Duke of Gloucester . 

" ' Wake up ! I'm going to America ! ' " . 

'"If that is so, I will go with you' " 

Lafayette secretly calls upon the American agent 

" ' It is a crazy scheme ! ' cried the count " 

Lafayette and the American agents 

Windsor Palace .... 

" He galloped back to Bordeaux " 

" The inn-keeper's daughter said never a word 

Lafayette and the captain 

Lafayette off the Carolina coast . 

Where Lafayette landed in America 

Lafayette's welcome to America 

Singing for Lafayette 

The Marquis de Lafayette 

" A great and capable commander " 

The president of Congress 

" At the door of the Congress " 

Bartholdi's statue of Lafayette 

Lafayette and the Congressman 

Alexander Hamilton 

Aaron Burr ..... 

Lafayette meets Washington 
Where Lafayette joined the army . 



Frontispiece 
Page 13 

18 
21 

25 
28 

39 
43 

45 
45 
48 

5° 
57 
59 
62 

64 
68 

73 
77 
83 
88 
90 

93 

98 

100 

10.? 

i°S 
1 10 
III 
114 
117 



lO 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



The monument on Brandywine Battle-field 

Lafayette at Brandywine 

The Old Sun Inn of Bethlehem 

The best foreign officers who served in the A 

Gen. Nathaniel Greene, of Rhode Island 

Lafayette and the Cabal 

Lafayette's headquarters at Valley Forge 

New York City and Harbor . 

" Lafayette bade good-bye to Washington " 

Where Lafayette fought death 

Lafayette " home again " 

Lafayette's " naval aid " 

The old mill at Newport 

Lafayette and Mrs. Arnold . 

Lafayette's antagonist . 

Where Washington joined Lafayette 

The Count de Rochambeau . 

Lafayette writing to Washington 

Lafayette in 1784 

Mount Vernon, the home of Washington 

Pohick Church, near Mount Vernon 

Thomas Jefferson .... 

One of France's holidays 

Napoleon Bonaparte .... 

The Austrian prison of Lafayette 

The wife of Lafayette .... 

The escape from Olmutz 

Lafayette surprised in prison 

Madame Lafayette and Napoleon 

Lafayette mourning for his wife 

The home of Lafayette's old age . 

The invitation from America 

The Lafayettes at the tomb of Washington 

Lafayette in America .... 

Lafayette's farewell to America 

General Lafayette, commander in-chief of the 

Lafayette and the Duke of Orleans 

One of the last portraits of Lafayette 

In the national capital .... 



merican Revolution 



forces of France 



Page 121 

123 

128 

131 
134 
137 
139 
146 
148 
15° 
153 
155 
159 
161 

163 
165 
166 
172 
178 
181 

183 
187 

•93 
198 
204 
206 
2 1 1 

215 
223 
227 
231 
236 
240 
242 
246 
249 
253 
255 
259 



THE 

TRUE STORY OF LAFAYETTE, 

THE FRIEND OF AMERICA. 



CHAPTER I. 

HOW THE LITTLE MARQUIS BEGAN LIFE. 

y\ LL boys and girls like stories of adventure. Let me 
■^ ^ tell you a true story, as crammed with adventure as 
" Robinson Crusoe," as crowded with fighting as " Ivanhoe," 
as full of noble deeds as " Westward Ho ! " 

It is not the story of an American; and yet few names 

have been more honored by America ; it is not the story of 

a great man, as Washington and Lincoln, Franklin and 

-Grant were great ; and yet the service he rendered to America 

has placed his name among the great ones of the earth. 

It is the story of a brave, romantic, generous, noble- 
hearted and devoted man, who reverenced liberty although 
born an aristocrat ; fought for it through nearly sixty years, 
although he detested war, and, through those sixty years, 
labored for his country's good even against his country's 



12 HOW THE LITTLE MARQUIS BEGAN LIFE. 

will ; who risked his life for the liberties of America, and 
narrowly escaped death in establishing the liberties of his 
native land. 

He began life as an historic boy; he closed it an 
historic man, revered by all lovers of liberty the world over, 
disliked only by those who hated liberty and feared the people. 
No man suffered more at the hands of those he wished to 
benefit; no man was more beloved by those who spurned 
his benefits. Idolized one day, imprisoned the next, but 
always a patriot, and always cheerful and brave, he builded 
even better than he knew, and wrought his name and his 
deeds into the destinies and progress of two nations, and died 
the friend and deliverer of both. 

Listen, then, to the story of Lafayette. 

Upon one of the green hill-slopes of the mountains of 
Auvergne, in what is now known as the department or county 
of Upper Loire (Haute-Loire it is, in French) but what was 
long called the province of Auvergne, in Southern France, there 
stands to-day, as there has stood for nearly six hundred years, 
a great fortified country mansion or manor-house, known as the 
Chateau of Chavaniac. Grim and gray this old country man- 
sion, half castle and half farmhouse, with its odd little towers, 
mossy walls, and loop-holed terraces, looks off upon the valley 
of the Allier and the rugged Auvergne mountains, an old- 
time home among the hills, in the healthiest and most inde- 
pendent portion of old France. 



HOW THE LITTLE MARQUIS BEGAN LITE. 



13 



In this ancient 
castle there was born 
on the sixth of Sep- 
tember, in the year 
1757, a small baby 
boy, not particularly 
attractive in face, or 
especially promising in 



But he was 
marquis of 



form, 
born a 
France ; and in the 
parish register of the 
little church of Cha- 
vaniac, where he was 
baptized, you may read 
the name they gave 
this little French baby 
boy, — a name almost 
as long as himself. 
For it stands recorded 
on the parish register, 
that, in that little 
church, was baptized 
on the seventh day of 
September, 1757, "the 
very noble and very 
powerful gentleman 








THE MOV LAFAYETTE. 
' He -wetU roafuing the/orest, sword in hand, to kill the great gray wolf. " 



14 HO IV THE LITTLE MARQUIS BEGAN LLFE. 

Monseigneur Marie-Joseph-Paul- Yves-Roch-Gilbert Dumotier 
de Lafayette, the lawful son of the very noble and very 
powerful gentleman Monseigneur Michel-Louis-Christophle- 
Roch-Gilbert Dumotier, Marquis de Lafayette, Baron de 
Vissac, Seigneur de Saint-Romain and other places, and of 
the very noble and very powerful lady Madame Marie- 
Louise-Julie Delareviere." 

Those were a good many names and a good many titles 
for a small baby to stagger under, were they not? But in 
France, as in all nations where old families and old estates 
become jumbled together under the workings of what is called 
the law of succession, the representative of several old and 
noble lines, as was Lafayette, often mingled his connec- 
tions in his name. But the real name of this very 
small boy, stripped of all its additions, was simply Gilbert 
Motier. 

This old family name of Motier ran away back to before 
the year looo. But when, about that time, one of the Motiers 
became possessed of a little farm called Villa Faya, or 
Fayetteville, he tacked this estate on his name and became 
Motier of La Fayette ; then as other lines of the family 
sprang up, possessed property, died out, and left their lands 
and titles to the remaining branch, these names were added 
to the main one, until the baby boy and heir of the estates, 
born in 1757, had to bear them all, — Gilbert and Roch and 
Christophle and all the rest with his mother's name of Marie, 
and his father's titles of marquis and baron and seigneur (or 



HOW THE LITTLE MARQUIS BEGAN LIFE. 



15 



lord). For, though only a baby, he was, by law, born a 
marquis of France. 

The reason for this was that six weeks before this little 
French boy was born in the gray old castle among the 
Auvergne mountains, his father, Colonel the Marquis de La 




AT llAbl t-NLtcK. 
" H is father , Colonel the Marquis de La Fayette^fetl dead while charging an English battery.'' 



Fayette, fell dead at the head of his regiment of the Grena- 
diers of France, while charging an English battery in the 
battle of Hastenbeck, — one of the engagements in what 
is known in histor)^ as the Seven Years' \\"ar; in America 
we are familiar with the same conflict as it was waged in 



1 6 HO IV 2 HE LITTLE MARQUIS BEGAN LIFE. 

this country under the general title of the French and Indian 
War, - — the war that made George Washington a successful 
soldier, and made all America English by the conquest 
of Canada. 

Without any father when he was born, this little French 
baby, by the law of the land, succeeded to his father's titles 
and estates. He was Marquis of Lafayette, Baron of Vissac, 
and Lord of Saint-Romain, old castles, now in ruins, and 
perched higher up among the Auvergne mountains than is 
the manor-house of Chavaniac. 

But though marquis, baron, and lord, this little Lafayette 
baby was not born to great wealth. He was, in fact, what 
we call " land poor." His mountain farms were extensive 
but not very productive; it had cost a large sum to send and 
keep his grandfather and father at the never-ending wars 
that, for generations, had swept over Europe, and as there 
was now no one in the family to hold high positions and draw 
good salaries at the king's court, the Lafayettes of Chavaniac 
were, in 1757, what would be called "high-born but poor." 

Still they were strong rnd sturdy people, those mountain 
folks of Auvergne ; and the baby marquis, the last and only 
remaining boy to represent the dignities and titles of the old 
and noble family whose name he bore, was brought up by 
his mother, his grandmother, and his aunts in the healthy, 
inspiring, frugal, and liberty-loving atmosphere of the Au- 
vergne hills. 

Country life and ways do not always develop the graces, 



HOW THE LITTLE MARQUIS BEGAN LIFE. ly 

and a boy who is brought up entirely by and among women 
is apt to be diffident and shy. So the Lafayette boy of the 
Chavaniac forests was by no means the model of beauty and 
grace we have been accustomed to consider him. He was 
a long-limbed, lean, lanky little chap with a hook-nose, red 
hair, and a retreating forehead, while he was so shy as to be 
almost ungainly and so quiet as to be almost awkward. But 
his eye was bright and sharp, his look, when interested, was 
firm and high, and beneath his unattractive exterior lay an 
intelligence that was making the boy a thinker, and a heart 
that was stirring up high ideals of right and justice, there 
among the fields and forests, the birds and beasts of his 
mountain estates. 

The birds and the beasts seemed for a time his only play- 
mates. His mother had scarcely money enough to go to 
Paris and keep up a grand city house, as was then the cus- 
tom with most of the lordly families of France ; so the lad 
grew up in the country, learning the habits of the farm and 
forest animals rather than of the court ; ignorant of the fine, 
though often false manners of the gay society of Paris and 
Versailles, save as his good mother instructed him in polite- 
ness, good breeding, gentle and chivalrous ways, while his 
sturdy grandmother saw that he was alike manly and brave, 
strong-limbed and stout-hearted, valiant and vigorous, as 
became the small son and last scion of a great race, whose 
men had been knights and warriors from the far-off days 
of the Crusades. 



i8 



HO IV THE LITTLE MARQUIS BEGAN LIFE. 



Indeed, the desire to do some " high emprise and deed 
of derring-do," learned from the old tales his grandmother 
told him, burned in the heart of this boy of eight when, 
sword in hand and eye alert, he went roaming the forests 




THE CHATEAU OF CHAVANIAC. 
"/« this ancient castle was born Lafayette, a marquis o/ France, September 6, 1/57' 



about Chavaniac in search of the great gray wolf which, so 
" his people " reported, had been breaking into sheepfolds 
and destroying the peace of mind of the farmers and cot- 
tagers around the manor-house. We do not read that he 
really killed that wolf, or even found the monster, but, in a 



HOW THE LITTLE MARQUIS BEGAN LIFE. 1 9 

way, it was a prophetic sign ; for, later, he was to go forth 
sword in hand and eye alert, to hunt out and attack a greater 
and more ravaging wolf, far across the vast western sea 
that this home-staying boy had never seen. 

He could not be a home-staying boy many years, how- 
ever. As the last representative of a noble house, it was his 
duty as a Frenchman of high estate to prepare himself to 
meet the obligations of his rank. Although the family was 
short of cash, they had rich and influential relations, and so, 
when he was eleven years old, it was decided by the family 
that he should leave his quiet castle home at Chavaniac, and 
go up to Paris to begin his education as a gentleman. 

He was sent to a sort of private school for young gentle- 
men, — the boys of the French "four hundred." It was 
called the College du Plessis, and there the boy was taught 
to express himself elegantly, handle his sword gracefully, 
dance delightfully, and offer his arm to a lady as gallantly as 
he could pick up her fan. It was hardly the school familiar 
to the boys and girls of to-day, who probably know more of real 
things and how to study about them than did even the school 
teachers at the College du Plessis in young Lafayette's day. 

But there was that in young Lafayette that helped him to 
educate and develop himself, in spite of the false instruction 
of his time ; while the devotion of his lady mother aided and 
strengthened him ; for, at much sacrifice, she gave up her 
quiet home in the country, and, with the aid of her rich rela- 
tions, obtained recognition at court and a place in society, so 



20 HOW THE LITTLE MARQUIS BEGAN LIFE. 

that she might help her son to enter the most aristocratic 
circles of France. 

The boy had a rich uncle, too, — or, rather, it was his 
mother's uncle, — who, because all the Lafayettes had been 
soldiers, put himself out to get the name of his grandnephew 
entered, early in life, on the " waiting list " of one of the "crack 
regiments " of France. This regiment was called " The Black 
Musketeers," and many a day did young Lafayette get 
" excused " from school to run off and see a review of " my 
regiment," as he would call it ; for, of course, he felt very 
proud to be on its roll of cadets. 

Under these influences and opportunities the awkward 
country boy became easier in his manners and more grace- 
ful in his motions ; but he was still shy and silent ; he dis- 
liked dancing and society ways ; he thought a good deal 
about things ; he was old for his years both in his talk and 
ways, and he was so practical that even when he undertook 
the task that all boys attempt, — a school composition on the 
horse, — he dwelt especially on the fact that if you try to 
make a horse do too many things perfectly the horse will 
grow restless and throw you, — a lesson of which Lafayette 
himself had practical experience, later, when in the days 
of the restless French Revolution he tried to train the people 
to be guided by his rein rather than their will — and was 
" thrown " again and again. 

Just as he had got into his "teens," in the year 1770, a 
sad thing happened. Both his good mother, who was so 



HOW THE LITTLE MARQUIS BEGAN LIFE. 



21 



watchful of his future, and his rich grand-uncle, who had 
taken so great an interest in the young Lafayette because 




A FRENCH BOY OF "QUALITY" IN LAFAYETTE'S SCHOOL -DAYS. 



he was the son of this old noble's favorite niece, and a prom- 
ising boy as well, died in Paris. 



22 HO IV THE LITTLE MARQUIS BEGAN LIFE. 

The boy felt sad and lonely enough. He was now quite 
alone in the world ; his nearest relative was his grandmother 
in the old castle at home ; alike his dearest friend and his 
strongest protector had been taken from him. 

Even in his death, however, this high-placed protector of 
his youth had remembered him. For the count, the uncle 
of Lafayette, left by his will all his fortune and estate to this 
small boy of thirteen. Thus from being a poor and proud 
young nobleman, Lafayette now became a very rich and power- 
ful young nobleman. At once every match-making mother 
and father in France who wished to " arrange " a fine mar- 
riage for their daughter laid siege to the young Marquis de 
Lafayette, — much to the disgust of this quiet, society-hating 
boy, who, like many boys just in their " teens," had a supreme 
contempt for all girls. 

Matters were conducted differently in the France of 
Lafayette's day than in our America of to-day. Very early 
in their children's lives fathers and mothers were preparing 
to " marry off " their sons and daughters to the best iinancial 
and social advantage. Even when they were babies, boys 
and girls were sometimes "betrothed," — engaged, as we 
would say to-day, — although the poor babies themselves had 
nothing to say in the matter, and had no especial interest 
in the plans arranged for them. 

So the relatives and guardians of the young marquis — 
a rich young marquis, now — began to look about for some 
suitable match for the boy, lest he should be made the prey 



HOW THE LITTLE MARQUIS BEGAN LIFE. 23 

of fortune-hunters, little knowing the boy's ability to look out 
for himself, and to think for himself as well. 

They selected one of the five daughters of the Duke 
d'Ayen, a noble and wealthy peer of the realm, marshal of the 
camp of the armies of the king, and a very persistent and 
determined gentleman, when once he made up his mind to 
have his own way. 

In this case the proposal of the guardians of the young 
Marquis de Lafayette to make the boy his son-in-law was 
precisely in the duke's way ; and at once he communicated the 
proposal to his wife, and declared that the one selected to be 
the Marchioness de Lafayette was their second daughter, 
Mademoiselle Marie-Adrienne-Francoise de Noailles, a girl of 

twelve, good, pretty, amiable, and in every way a delightful 

character. 

But Adrienne's mother, the Duchess d'Ayen, was quite 
as strong a character, in her way, as was her husband the 
duke. When she learned who was this son-in-law that her 
husband had selected for their second daughter, she objected 
at once. 

"It is too great a risk to run for Adrienne," she declared. 
" The Marquis de Lafayette is very young, very rich, and 
very wilful. He seems to be a good boy, so far as his stand- 
ing at school and his conduct in society are concerned ; but 
with no one to guide him, no one to look after his fortune 
and hold him back from extravagance and foolishness, with- 
out a near relative, and with his character as yet unformed 



24 HOW THE LITTLE MARQUIS BEGAN LIFE. 

and uncertain, our daughter's marriage to him is out of the 
question, and I will not agree to it." 

Her husband declared that she must, and she repeated 
that she would not ; the discussion, of which, by the way, 
neither the boy nor the girl most interested had the slightest 
idea, continued until this husband and wife, who had always 
loved each other dearly, actually quarrelled and almost 
separated because of it. But the duke thought it over and 
at last gave in so far as to suggest as a compromise that the 
marriage should not take place for two years, that Adrienne 
should not leave her mother for at least three years, and that, 
meantime, he, the duke, would himself look after the education 
and advancement of the young marquis, so as to make him 
in every way a proper and suitable husband for their daughter. 

The duchess thought it over also, and at last she, too, 
agreed to the compromise. 

"If the boy is brought up in our home where I can see 
and study him," she declared, " I will agree. Then, having 
taken all precautions, and having no negligence wherewith to 
reproach ourselves, we need do nothing but peacefully submit 
to the will of God, who knows best what is fitting for us." 

So it was decided, and so it was arranged. The boy and 
girl were allowed to meet without knowing what were the 
family intentions in regard to them, and, very fortunately, 
they liked one another at once, and so much that when at 
last their future was disclosed to them by their guardians, 
they were both delighted, and began to build bright air-castles, 




"THE DUKE THCUGHT IT OVEK AND SUGGESTED A COMPROMISE." 



no IV THE LITTLE MARQUIS BEGAN LIFE. 27 

in true boy and girl style, of what they would do for the hap- 
piness of the world when they were old enough to use their 
own money and estate. 

Lafayette was fourteen and Adrienne was twelve when 
their engagement was made public ; rather young, we should 
say, according to our American standards ; but customs vary 
as much as d(^ tongues and times, and all France declared it 
was an excellent match. 

Even the duchess, who objected, said so too, in time. 
For when Adrienne's mother came really to know this quiet 
and rather awkward young marquis, she loved him as dearly 
and cared for him as tenderly as if he were her own son ; and 
then she and the duke " made it all up again." 

The duke kept his promise. He took the boy in hand, 
had him live in his own home, the stately, old-time Noailles 
mansion in the heart of Paris, and sent him in time to 
the Academy of Versailles where young noblemen were 
educated in military duties, until at last the boy mar- 
quis secured his commission and became an officer in the 
king's own regiment of the Black Musketeers, upon whose 
very exclusive roll of cadets his good grand-uncle had entered 
his name. 

While this military education was going on, Lafayette and 
Adrienne d'Ayen were married. Their wedding day was the 
eleventh of April, 1 774 ; the young bridegroom was but sixteen, 
the bride was fourteen ; it was a boy and girl marriage, and, 
indeed, for a year or more the young people were both kept 



28 



I/O J I' THE LITTLE MARQUIS BEGAN LIFE. 



at the Noailles mansion, under the guardianship of the duke 
and duchess. But it was one of the happiest of marriages, 
and for thirty-four years they lived together as husband and 
wife. " Thirty-four years of union," so wrote Lafayette after 
Adrienne's death in i.Soy, "in which the love and the eleva- 




A FRENCH WEDDING IN LAFAVETTE'S DAY. 



tion, the delicacy and the generosity of her soul, charmed, 
adorned, and honored my days, and in which I was so much 
accustomed to all that she was to me that I did not distin- 
guish her from my own existence." 

That was a beautiful tribute to his girl-wife, was it not ? 
Madame Adrienne de Lafayette seems to have been as rare 



HO IV THE LITTLE MARQUIS BEGAN LIFE. 29 

and beautiful and noble a woman as he was excellent, pure- 
hearted, and noble a man. 

In 1775 the young couple set up housekeeping for them- 
selves. They had a house in Paris, and their country estate 
was the old castle at Chavaniac ; they had gay surroundings, 
and were of the " inner circle," with princes and princesses 
and all the young lords and ladies of that bright and careless 
court at Versailles as their associates. 

But Lafayette did not take kindly to all this show and 
glitter. " The awkwardness of my manners," he says, 
" never could properly adjust themselves to the required 
graces of the court," The balls and theatrical shows, the 
dances and suppers, and all the extravagant entertainments 
of the young queen Marie Antoinette, were not to his liking, 
although you would naturally expect them to be most attrac- 
tive to a boy of seventeen. 

It was the fashion just then among the younger courtiers 
and aristocrats of France, to talk much of liberty and the 
rights of man. It came from the teaching of certain " up-to- 
date " philosophers and students of society, who, in the last 
quarter of the eighteenth century, influenced the aristocratic 
classes of France and made them libertv-lovers, althouijh 
they were the ruling spirits in a nation where there was very 
little liberty, and where any man not a noble had scarcely 
any rights. It was, after all, mostly talk, however; but to 
the young Lafayette^ brought up in sturdy independence, 
in the free air of the rugged Auvergne hills, it proved some- 



30 HO IV THE LITTLE MARQUIS BEGAN LIFE. 

thing more than talk. He learned to believe in and desire 
liberty and freedom for the people ; he thought it would be a 
fine thing if there were less of suffering and wrong among 
the poor, and more of helpfulness and generosity among the 
rich. He and his young wife, as I have told you, had 
beautiful dreams of what they would do to make the world 
better; they were only dreams, to be sure, but, because of 
them and of his retiring disposition, the young marquis did 
not take kindly to the stiff ceremonials and foolish fripperies 
of the court, where so much was show without sense and 
affectation without affection. 

He even joined some of the young nobles in making 
sport of the older ones and in poking fun at all their stiff 
and starched ways ; one day he, with the princes and young 
lords of the court, got up a mock parliament which they 
played before the gay young queen, Marie Antoinette, just 
to make fun of the real parliament then in session at 
Versailles. It came very near getting Lafayette and the 
young nobles in trouble ; for though even the young king, 
Louis XVI., had to laugh over it, he was forced also, out 
of respect to his " grave and revered seigneurs " to " call 
down " and reprimand those who had taken part in the 
" take-off." And in the midst of all the fuss and fume over 
the affair, Lafayette, who was heartily sick of it all, was 
glad enough to be ordered, as a sort of punishment, to join 
his regiment at Strasburg. 

But under all this sport and caricature in which the 



HOW THE LITTLE MARQUIS BEGAN LITE. 31 

young and thoughtless nobles joined there was with a few, 
and especially with Lafayette, much serious and earnest 
thought over the condition of the world. He shared the 
growing desire that seemed " in the air " for real liberty and 
the end of sham and of the meaningless ceremonies that 
bolstered up royalty; so, although he could not tell precisely 
how liberty was to come to France or when it was to come, 
he still dreamed about it, and, like the clear-headed, pure- 
hearted, sensible, and manly boy he was, hoped for the 
dawning of the day that should bring men nearer together 
as brothers and fellow workers, and give to all, in some way 
and to some extent, the boon and blessing of freedom. 



32 WHERE HE HEARD OE INDEPENDENCE. 



CHAPTER II. 

WHERE THE YOUNG ARISTOCRAT HEARD OF INDEPENDENCE. 

T AFAYETTE'S father-in-law, the Duke d'Ayen, always 
-*-^ felt himself so responsible for the doings of his daugh- 
ter's husband that he was greatly displeased over this con- 
duct of his son-in-law, in mimicking the manners of the high 
and ceremonious nobles of the court. The duke greatly 
liked Lafayette, although he could not understand him or 
fathom his thoughts. He was afraid the boy was growing 
indifferent, careless, and indolent, and he begged young- 
Count Segur, Lafayette's especial friend and cousin, to rouse 
the young marquis, and stir him up to more enthusiasm. 

" Indifferent'! indolent ! " cried the young count, with a 
laugh. " Faith ! my dear marshal, you do not yet know our 
Lafayette. He has altogether too much enthusiasm. Why, 
only yesterday he almost insisted on my fighting a duel with 
him because I did not aoree with him in a matter of which 
I knew nothing, and of which he thought I should know 
everything. He is anything but indifferent and indolent, I 
can assure you." 

If that were the case, and he really had misunderstood 
his young son-in-law, the Duke d'Ayen decided that he must 



WHERE HE HEARD OF INDEPENDENCE. ^2> 

put the lad's talents to the highest use. To a noble of 
France, the " highest use " for a man of rank meant faithful 
and continued attendance at court ; so the duke planned and 
worked to have Lafayette " attached " in some official capac- 
ity to the personal suite or following of one of the scapegrace 
young princes of France, — the Count of Provence, brother 
of King Louis XVL 

But if you have read the story of Lafayette aright, even 
thus far, you have discovered that he was not the kind of a 
boy to curry favor with princes or follow like a lackey in 
a noble's train. Already, his vague search after liberty for 
man was making him detest anything like toadying and 
favoritism, and leading him to dislike titles and distinctions 
of rank. He listened eagerly to anything he heard concern- 
ing men who, in any land, were awaking to a desire for 
freedom. 

" I was delighted with republican stories," he says of 
himself at that time, " and when my relatives secured a place 
for me at court I did not hesitate to give offence in order to 
maintain my independence." 

Probably if the Count of Provence, in whose " train " the 
young marquis was to be provided with a place, had been 
an older man Lafayette would not have " given offence " in 
just the way he did ; for Lafayette was always a gentleman, 
and had been brought up to respect his elders. But this 
young prince, the brother of the king of France, was 
scarcely two years older than Lafayette, and felt his impor- 



34 WHERE HE HEARD OE INDEPENDENCE. 

tance tremendously. Any boy of spirit and independence 
dislikes such airs, and the young marquis felt that he was 
just as much of a boy and had just as much of right and 
interest in the world as had this haughty young Count of 
Provence — king's brother though he were. 

So, when the duke, his father-in-law, managed to get the 
young marquis to Paris and told him what he was trying to 
arrange, Lafayette, as he confesses, actually put himself out 
to give offence to the prince and to break up the proposed 
scheme for his objectionable " advancement." 

At one of the gay masked balls given at the court, Lafay- 
ette took pains to hunt out the Count of Provence, who was 
to be his " patron." Then, actually cornering him, he reeled 
off the greatest lot of talk about liberty and equality and the 
rights of man that he could think up, — more of it, perhaps, 
and much more radical and emphatic in statement than 
Lafayette himself really believed. He was just " piling it 
on," you see, in order to make the young prince angry and 
disgusted with him. 

He certainly succeeded. The king's brother tried to pro- 
test, but he could scarcely "get a word m edgewise;" the 
usually silent and reserved young marquis grew more and 
more eloquent and objectionable. 

" Sir," said the boy prince, lifting his mask, " I shall remem- 
ber this interview." 

" Sir," replied the boy marquis, lifting his mask and bowing 
politely, but significantly; " memory is the wisdom of fools." 



WHERE HE HEARD OF INDEPENDENCE. 35 

With an indignant gesture the prince turned hotly on his 
heel, and the young marquis was in disgrace. And you shall 
see, as you get deeper into the story of Lafayette, how the 
angry Count of Provence really did " remember " the inter- 
view. 

The well-meaning father-in-law of the young marquis was 
again terribly scandalized. The thought that this young man 
had not only recklessly refused so fine an opportunity, but 
had gone out of his way to anger those to whom he should 
have toadied, was something the good, but old-fashioned 
Duke d'Ayen could not understand. 

The Duke found fault with the boy openly and strongly. 
But Lafayette had accomplished what he desired, and he was 
so independent as regarded rank and riches that he could 
afford to do about as he pleased ; so, though his family 
" complained," he said little or nothing in reply. 

" His reluctance to talk," one of his youthful associates 
said, in later years, " and his chilly, serious manner, were 
always remarkable, but never as much so as in his youth, 
when they contrasted strangely with the petulant brilliance 
of his companions." 

That sounds oddly to Americans, does it not ? For we 
have always thought of Lafayette as bright, impetuous, talk- 
ative and fascinating, something entirely different from the 
silent, serious, " chilly " young man this picture seems to 
make him. We know, however, what high ideals were fighting 
the injustice of the world in this boy's thoughtful nature ; 



36 WHERE HE HEARD OF INDEPENDENCE. 

and his companions and relations simply did not under- 
stand him. But Madame Adrienne, his bright young wife, 
did understand him better than the rest of her family ; and, 
as she loved him, so, too, she sympathized with him, even 
though she did not really always agree with him. 

But the Duke d'Ayen, in great distress, had the young 
marquis despatched to his regiment, sorrowfully giving up that 
brilliant plan for advancement at court. And, in August, 
1775, Lafayette was transferred from the Black Musketeers, 
in which he held a commission, to another command. He 
was made an officer in the " regiment de Noailles," as it 
was called, one of the high-toned regiments of France, com- 
manded by an equally high-toned young colonel, Monsei- 
gneur the Prince de Poix, a cousin of Lafayette's wife, and 
one of the lofty De Noailles family for whom the regiment 
was named, as has long been the custom in certain armies of 
certain European countries. 

The " regiment de Noailles " was stationed at Metz, at 
that time a garrison city of France, and nearly two hun- 
dred miles east of Paris. The military governor or com- 
mander of Metz was the Count de Broglie, marshal and 
prince of France and commander of the French armies in 
the Seven Years' War, in which, at that fatal battle of 
Hastenbeck, as I have told you, Lafayette's father, the 
colonel, had been killed by English guns. 

The Count de Broglie had a high regard for the son 
of his old friend and companion in arms, and made much of 



WHERE HE HEARD OF INDEPENDENCE. 37 

Lafayette when his regiment was stationed at Metz. He 
invited the young marquis to his feasts and entertainments, 
of which there were many in the gay garrison towns of that 
show-time in France. 

In those years France and England were, for a wonder, 
at peace, and so it came about that, on the eighth of 
August, 1775, when the Count de Broghe gave a garrison 
dinner-party to a young English prince, the Duke of 
Gloucester, the Marquis de Lafayette in his handsome dress 
uniform of blue and silver was one of the guests at the 
table. But even these " functions " were not to his taste, 
and he sat silent and thoughtful, while the other young 
officers were boisterous, laughing, and talkative, through the 
courses of this long " swell " banquet given by a prince of 
France to a prince of England. 

Now this prince of England, William, Duke of Glouces- 
ter, was in temporary disgrace with his brother, George, the 
king of England, because he had the audacity to marry 
a wife to whom the king objected. So the duke and his 
wife had been sent out of England on a sort of enforced 
vacation, and, as a result, the duke was not in a very loving 
mood toward his brother the king. Indeed the duke was 
so foolish as to criticise the king and even to make fun of 
him in the house of his hereditary foes. For France, 
■although, as I have told you, at peace just then with 
England, had been her bitter foe ever since the days of 
Crecy and Poitiers, and, especially, from that disastrous 



38 WHERE HE HEARD OF INDEPENDENCE. 

September day in 1759 when, on the Heights of Abra- 
ham, Wolfe had defeated Montcahii and driven the French 
power from America. 

In that very year of 1775 in which the Duke of 
Gloucester dined with the French Commandant at Metz, 
news had come to England of the breaking out of a 
rebellion in America, which had led to a fight between 
American " peasants " and British soldiers at a place called 
Lexington in the colony of Massachusetts Bay. The duke 
had received letters from England in which had been told 
the story of the determined stand of the American " peas- 
ants " at Lexington and Concord, — for to aristocratic Europe 
those Middlesex farmers and fishermen v/ere simply " peas- 
ants," men of the lower orders who needed the strong hand 
to put them down. The duke had also been told of the 
long and disastrous retreat of Lord Percy and his troops 
through a now historic country, from Lexington back to 
Boston. This seemed such a good joke on his stubborn 
brother, the king, that he told it with great gusto. So, as, 
in the company of the French officers around the Duke 
de Broglie's dinner-table, he told the story of the "uprising" 
in America and how also in that same Boston town, a year 
or so before, the " rebel townspeople " rather than pay the 
king's tax on tea had thro\\n the tea into the harbor, the 
company was highly entertained by the recital, and ques- 
tioned the duke as to who these rebel " peasants " were 
and why they were in rebellion. 




'• THE AMERICAN PEASANTS " WHO STOOD AT LEXINGTON AND CONCORD. 



WHERE HE HEARD OF INDEPENDENCE. 4 1 

The Duke of Gloucester, as I have told you, was just 
then " out " with the king his brother ; it has even been 
charged that he sided with the rebel Americans against King 
George III. and his councillors, as did many justice-loving 
Englishmen. So he explained to his French hosts the cause 
of the quarrel between king and colonists — that is, so far 
as he knew it; there were very, very few of the lords and 
gentlemen of England in that day who really did understand 
the American question ; but the Duke of Gloucester did say 
that, though the " peasants " of America were a plucky lot, 
still, as all the " gentlemen " of the colonies seemed to be 
loyal to the king, the " peasants " had no chance of success 
unless, by some chance, leaders and officers of experience 
turned in and helped them. 

" They are poor, they are ill led, they have no gentlemen- 
soldiers to show them how to fight," the duke declared, "and 
the king my brother is determined to bring them into sub- 
jection by harsh and forcible methods, if need be. But my 
letters say that the Americans seem set upon opposing force 
with force, and, as the country is large and the colonies 
scattered, it certainly looks as if the trouble would be long 
and serious. If but the Americans were well led, I should 
say the rebellion might really develop into a serious afTair." 
In a way, most of the French officers at that military 
banquet involuntarily sympathized with the American 
"peasants," of whose struggle for justice and independence 
they were, most of them, hearing for the first time. With 



42 



WHERE HE HEARD OF INDEPENDENCE. 



some of them this sympathy was due to that interest in 
liberty which just then was the fancy, almost the "fad," 
among a certain class of French aristocrats ; to all of them, 
however, it was especially due to the hatred for England 
that underlay French enthusiasm and action — the desire 
to " get square with " the nation that had worsted and 
humbled France, alike in war and in politics. 

But while at that table there were interested but indif- 
ferent listeners, there was one who, as he listened to the 
Duke of Gloucester, felt what the old Puritans used to call 
" an inward light." His sharp-featured, unattractive face 
fairly glowed with enthusiasm ; his eyes sparkled with an 
intensity of interest and purpose ; he leaned far forward, 
serious and silent, amid his talkative companions, as he 
strove to lose no word of the imperfect French of the Eng- 
lish prince ; then, as the company rose from the table, this 
red-haired, awkward boy of eighteen crossed over to the 
prince, and, repressing his real earnestness, inquired anx- 
iously, " But could one help these peasants over there 
beyond the seas, monseigneur ? " 

" One could, my lord marquis, if he were there," the 
prince replied. 

" Then tell me, I pray you, how one may do it, monsei- 
gneur," said the young man ; " tell me how to set about it. 
For see, I will join these Americans ; I will help them fight 
for freedom ! " 

The duke looked into the face of this calm, cool, appar- 



WHERE HE HEARD OE EXDEFENDENCE. 



43 



ently unenthusiastic young noble, now aroused to interest 
and ardor. He smiled at first in a sort of disbelief. But, 
as he caught the gleam of the boy's eye, and saw the con- 
viction that lived in the earnest face, he said : " Why, I 
believe you would, my lord. 
It wouldn't take much to 
start you across the sea, — 
if your people would let 
you." 

If his people would let 
him ? Who would try to 
stop him ? Lafayette asked 
himself. He had been so 
accustomed to having his 
own way that such a thing 
as any one interfering with 
his plans seemed to him 
absurd. Besides, the high 
resolve that he had made 
allowed no question of in- 
terference. That purpose 
put from his mind every 

other thought except his instant decision. Quick and impul- 
sive, for all his silent ways and seeming indifference, in that 
moment the Marquis de Lafayette had made up his mind. 
He would go to America; he would offer his services to 
a people who were struggling for freedom and independence. 




LAFAYETTE AND THE DUKE OF GLOUCESTER. 

" ' Could one help these peasants, monseigueur V " 



44 



WHERE HE HEARD OF INDEPENDENCE. 



His inborn love of liberty; his dislike for courts and their 
stupid ceremonials, for kingly tyrannies and the fetters they 
put upon the wills and ways of men ; his dream of doing- 
something that should make the world happier and better, — 
dreams which, as you know, he had shared with his young 
wife Adrienne; above all, his desire for action, his wish to 
be somebody, to do something besides hanging about the 
court, or waiting upon the pleasure or caprices of a king, — 
these, all, combined to urge him to instant action. He 
questioned the Duke of Gloucester closely; he got all the 
" points " possible. The only question was how to get to 
America. For, as you can see, he was enlisted, heart and 
soul, in the cause of American independence. " Never," he 
said, in after years, recalling his boyish impulse and that 
sudden decision ; " never had so noble a purpose offered itself 
to the judgment of men. This was the last struggle of 
liberty; the defeat in America would have left it without 
refuge and without hope." 

Within a month the Duke of Gloucester had returned to 
England and to the favor of his kingly brother, probably 
giving no further thought to the earnest young Frenchman 
who had questioned him so closely at Metz. But before 
that month was out the Marquis de Lafayette had already 
gone still deeper into the plan which the careless words 
of the English prince had set in motion in his youthful 
mind. 

" From that hour," he declared, " I could think of nothing 



WHERE HE HEARD OF INDEPENDENCE. 



45 



but this enterprise, and I resolved to go to Paris at once to 
make further inquiries." 

He hurried off to Paris, full of 
his plans. His determination grew 
with his desire, and as soon as he 
reached town, he rushed to find 
his cousin and close confidant, 
the young Count de Segur. 

It was only 

seven o'clock in 

the morning, and 

the young count 

was not yet up. 

But Lafayette 

burst into his 




cousm s room. 

He was no 

longer listless, 

silent, or indif- 
ferent. 

"Wake up! 

wake up ! " he 

called out to 
the surprised count. " Wake up ! 
I'm going to America to fight 
for freedom. Nobody knows it 
yet ; but I love you too much not to tell you." 



•WAKE UP ! IM GOING 
TO AMERICA.' " 




' IF THAT IS SO, 1 
WITH VOU.' 



WILL GO 



46 II'//y THE MARQi'IS RAX A IV AY TO SEA. 

And the Count de Segur, fired by his Cousin's earnestness, 
and thrilled with his inspiring news, sprang out of bed and 
caught Lafayette's outstretched hand. 

" If that is so, I will go with you," he cried. " I will go to 
America, too. I will fight with you for freedom ! How soon 
do you start ? " 



CHAPTER HI. 

WHY THE MARQUIS RAN AWAY TO SEA. 

'nr^HE two impulsive boys, who, fired by a generous pur- 
pose, thus pledged themselves to fight for the liberties 
of America at seven o'clock in the morning, straightway 
after breakfast hunted up another young friend whom 
they knew would be with them, heart and soul, in this 
enterprise. 

This was the Viscount Louis Marie de Noailles, brother- 
in-law to Lafayette, one year older than the young mar- 
quis and his very dear friend. He, too, eagerly seconded 
Lafayette's plan ; for though a great noble of France, he 
belonged to what we should call to-day a sort of Tolstoi 
family; for his father actually worked with the peasants 
at the plough and his mother and sister lived only " for 
God and their poor." Naturally, this plan to help a nation 



jr//}' THE MARQUIS RAX AWAY TO SEA. 47 

to freedom would appeal to such a liberal-minded young 
man, and the three boys — none of them were over twenty, 
you know — pledged themselves to fight for America and 
to set about it at once. 

This, however, proved to be no easy task. France 
hated England and was ready to go to any extent, secretly, 
to injure her at home and cripple her abroad. But there 
was no desire just at that time for an open rupture of 
peaceful relations, and the prime minister of King Louis 
of France while really wishing one thing said quite 
another. 

When, therefore, the prime minister learned that there 
was a movement among the young nobles of France to 
sail across the sea and fight with the American " insur- 
gents " against the power of England, he was afraid that 
England would think that the French government per- 
mitted and encouraged this hostile action. So, lest it might 
lead to undesirable complications, perhaps to actual war, 
he " sat down upon " all such schemes whenever he heard 
of them, and, especially, upon the three-cornered partner- 
ship in patriotism of Lafayette, Noailles, and Segur. 

So the young fellows had to go to work cautiously 
and in secret council ; and as Noailles and Segur had no 
money of their own to invest in this adventure, but must 
look to their fathers for funds, they had to think first of 
money. Even before making this necessary application, 
however, they waited until Lafayette could with the great- 



48 



IVirV THE MARQUIS RAN AWAY TO SEA. 



est caution see and talk with the agent of the rebellious 
American colonists. 

This agent was Silas Deane of Connecticut, who had 



i;:Z^f^'-ai\\v\x:nC;v m o is , h^, <wi. 




LAFAYETTE SECRETLY CALLS UPON THE 
AMERICAN AGENT. 



been sent across to France by the American " Committee 
of Secret Correspondence," of which Doctor Benjamin 
Franklin was a member. Do you remember how, in the 



PVJIV THE MARQUIS RAN AWAY TO SEA. 40 

"True Story of Benjamin Franklin," I told you about the 
mysterious visit to this committee of a certain " little lame 
Frenchman," who hinted significantly to the surprised com- 
mittee that, whenever they were ready, they could get all 
the help they wanted from France? 

I am inclined to think that this very mysterious and 
" little lame Frenchman " was a certain Monsieur Achard 
Bonvouloir, lieutenant in the army of the king of France, 
who had " made up " for this interview so that no one 
should recognize him, but who had really been sent to 
America by the prime minister of France, to see how 
things stood and to give the Americans secretly to under- 
stand that if they wished the aid of France there was a 
way in which they could have it. 

At any rate, it was soon after this secret interview 
that the committee sent Silas Deane to France, as the 
agent of the colonies in rebellion against the power of 
England, and it was to Silas Deane that the young 
Marquis de Lafayette applied for information as to how 
he could join the " insurgent army " in America. 

Before seeking an interview with Silas Deane and with- 
out saying anything to his wife or his wife's family, — for 
the latter, he knew, would put an immediate veto on his 
action, — the young marquis told his secret to his superior 
officer, the Count de Broglie, commander of the garrison 
at Metz, his own and his father's friend. 

" Throw your life away in that land of savages ! " cried 



50 



ll'/fi- THE MARQi'IS RAN AWAY TO SEA. 



the count, when Lafayette had told him his desire. "Why, 
my dear marquis, it is a crazy scheme ; and to what 
purpose? " 

" For the noblest purpose, sir," responded the young 
enthusiast ; " to help a devoted people attain their liberty. 
What can be nobler?" 

" A dream, a dream, my friend, that 
can never be fulfilled," said the count, 
" I will not help you throw your life 
away. My boy," he added, feelingly, 
grasping the hand of the young marquis, 
" I saw your uncle die in the wars of 
Italy; I witnessed your brave father's 
death at Hastenbeck, and I cannot, I will 
not be a party to the ruin of the last of 
your name, the only remaining branch 
'^ =. and scion of the Lafayettes." 

This was like cold water on the young^ 

"'IT IS A CRAZY -^ ° 

scheme!' cried the soldier's scheme, but even cold water 
could not drown or even dampen his en- 
thusiasm. Indeed, so earnestly and so vigorously did he 
combat all the count's objections, and so strenuously did he 
advocate his own desires, that, at last, even the gallant com- 
mander of Metz was won over to his young lieutenant's side, 
and said he would help him to his desires, although it was 
a risky business. 

" I will introduce you to De Kalb," he said. " He is in 




ii'HV THE MARQL/S RAN AlFAV TO SEA. 5 1 

Paris now, and perhaps through him you can gain your 
point with this Monsieur Deane." 

So it was only through a third, even through a fourth 
party, that Lafayette was able to bring about his interview 
with the agent of the colonies. 

There was in Paris at that time, as the Count de Broglie 
had said, a veteran Bavarian soldier named John Kalb, better 
known as Baron de Kalb. The true story of his life is but 
slightly known ; but it was full of mystery, action, and ad- 
venture, and in the American Revolution De Kalb proved 
himself a brave and efficient leader. 

Long before the Revolution he had been in America. In 
1768 he was sent by a far-seeing minister of France to 
investigate the trouble that even then was brewing between 
England and her American colonies, and which, so that wise 
minister foresaw, would one day lead to serious results, 
unless England changed her methods. But England, as 
you know, did not change her methods; the troubles of 1768 
grew into the revolution of 1776, and England's necessity 
was France's opportunity. 

So, just at the time when Lafayette had made up his 
mind to go to America, the Count de Broglie, his com- 
mander, whom Lafayette's earnestness had set to thinking, 
requested the Baron de Kalb to go again to America in his 
behalf, and see if he could not so " work things " that he, the 
Count de Broglie, could be invited by the American Con- 
gress to become commander in chief of the American armies. 



52 WHY THE MARQUIS RAN AWAY TO SEA. 

This sounds oddly to us, to-day, who know that there 
was and could be but one Washington. But, at that time, 
France set down all Americans as " a herd of peasants " 
who, as the Duke of Gloucester had said, could never suc- 
ceed in their struggle against England unless disciplined 
and marshalled by some European soldier of high name and 
warlike experience, — as, for instance, so reasoned the com- 
mander of Metz, the Count de Broglie ! 

To accomplish his mission, it was necessary that De 
Kalb should go at once to America and secretly confer with 
the Congress ; to do this, an appointment was desirable in 
the service of the United States, — it was really the United 
States of America now, you see, since the Declaration of 
Independence, — and to secure this appointment, the Baron 
de Kalb and the Count de Broglie waited upon " Monsieur 
Deane," the agent of the " insurgents." 

Silas Deane was an enthusiastic but somewhat unwise 
patriot, who was so anxious to secure friends and assistance 
for America that he made rash promises to every one who 
showed any interest or asked for a commission in the 
American service ; he was therefore unable to distinguish 
between scheming adventurers and honest friends of 
American liberty. 

He was quite impressed by the visit of the Count de 
Broglie and the Baron de Kalb, you may be sure, and at once 
he promised Baron de Kalb the rank of major-general in the 
American army, and signed an agreement whereby De Kalb 



Wl/y THE MARQUIS RAN AWAY TO SEA. 53 

and fifteen French officers should go to America on a vessel 
loaded with arms and military supplies for the fighting 
Americans. 

This was Lafayette's opportunity. The Count de 
Broglie, as promised, introduced him to De Kalb, the baron 
introduced him to Silas Deane ; and to the American agent 
the young marquis freely opened his heart, and stated his 
wish and his intention. This was on or about the fifth of 
December, 1776. 

Lafayette was very boyish-looking at that time ; he was 
smooth-faced and slight of figure, and, indeed, feared greatly 
that his " nineteen-year-old face," as he called it, would hurt 
his cause. But he was so full of zeal and enthusiasm, and, 
as he confesses, " made so much out of the small excitement 
that my going away was likely to cause," that Silas Deane 
was captivated by the young marquis at once, and forthwith, 
according to his helter-skelter custom, drew up a contract 
with Lafayette, by which the young Frenchman was to 
enter the service of the United States of America as major- 
general, — a major-general at nineteen ! 

" His high birth," so the agreement which was submitted 
to Congress read, " his alliances, the great dignities which 
his family holds at this court, his considerable estates in this 
realm, his personal merit, his reputation, his disinterested- 
ness, and above all, his zeal for the liberty of our provinces, 
are such as have only been able to engage me to promise 
him the rank of major-general in the name of the United 



54 IVI/y THE MARQUIS RAN AWAY TO SEA. 

States. In witness of which I have signed the present this 
seventh of December, 1776. Silas Deane, Agent for the 
United States of America." 

From all this you may judge that the overzealous 
agent of the United States of America was as susceptible 
to the enthusiasm of this nineteen-year-old marquis as 
even the soldierly commandant of the king's garrison at 
Metz. 

But other people were not so susceptible, especially when 
the young marquis was a son-in-law. When Lafayette 
declared his intention his own relatives and his wife's family 
were furious. Only his girl-wife Adrienne understood his 
motives and sympathized with his desires. It was quite in 
line, you see, with the high plans for making the world 
better that this young husband and wife had dreamed over 
together. 

" God wills that you should go," she said. " I have 
prayed for guidance and strength. Whatever others think, 
you shall not be blamed." 

But others not only thought ; they acted. One of these, 
and the most important actor, was the Duke d'Ayen, the 
father of Adrienne. 

The two young comrades of Lafayette, De Noailles and 
Segur, who had promised to go with him, could not get 
either the funds from their fathers nor permission from the 
king. So they had to give up their plans. Lafayette, how- 
ever, was rich ; his money was all his own ; no one could 



WJIV THE MARQUIS RAN AWAY TO SEA. 55 

control his action or his expenditures. But he was a soldier 
of France; so father-in-law d'Ayen complained to the king; 
the British ambassador, who had somehow got hold of the 
facts, complained to the king; and the king of France, who 
was really little more than a boy, and a very unenthusiastic 
boy at that, said that, while it was a very fine thing to be 
zealous in behalf of liberty, he could not allow the officers of 
his army to serve in the army of the American " insurgents " 
against the soldiers of the king of England, with whom he 
was at peace. He therefore forbade any officer of his to go 
to the war in America. 

"You had better return to your regiment at Metz, my 
dear son," the triumphant Duke d'Ayen advised. But he 
did not yet know the spirit of his son-in-law. 

" No Lafayette was ever known to turn back," the young 
marquis declared. " I shall do as I have determined ; " and 
thereupon he put upon his coat-of-arms the motto taken by 
a great soldier ancestor of his, city uon — "Why not?" in 
order, as he declared, that the device might serve him " both 
as an encouragement and a response." And then he went off 
very quietly to talk with Doctor Franklin. 

For, by this time, Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania, 
the foremost and best-known American of that day, had been 
sent to France to assist and advise Silas Deane, and, in time, 
to replace him. You have read how Franklin went to the 
French court as envoy from America, and all that he accom- 
plished there. He, too, was at once attracted by Lafay- 



56 Jr//y THE MARQUIS RAN AWAY TO SEA. 

ette's earnestness, and appreciated the great influence that 
his name would have in behalf of America. 

Just at that time terrible news came across the Atlantic. 
The Americans had been defeated and almost cut to pieces 
at the disastrous battle of Long Island, and a sudden 
chill fell upon French enthusiasm. It looked as if the 
" insurgents " in America were not strong enough to take 
care of themselves and that France had better leave them 
alone. 

But Lafayette was only strengthened in his determination 
bv this bad news. 

He sought out Franklin. Mr. Deane was with the 
doctor. 

"Gentlemen," said the young marquis, "heretofore I have 
been able to show you only my willingness to aid you in 
your struggle; the time has now come when that willing- 
ness may be put to effective use. I am going to buy a ship 
and take your officers and supplies to America in it. Let us 
not give up our hope yet. It is precisely in time of danger 
that I wish to share whatever fortune may have in store for 
you." 

Do you wonder that Franklin was moved by the gener- 
osity and friendliness of this very determined young man ? 
But Doctor Franklin was, as you know, the most practical 
of men ; so, while accepting the offer of the young marquis 
with thanks and appreciation, he suggested that the Ameri- 
can agents were not popular people to know just then, and 



IV/fV THE MARQUIS RAN AWAY TO SEA. 



57 



that Lafayette should work through third parties, and, if 
possible, get away from Paris. 

Lafayette took this advice. He selected as his agent an 
officer in one of the king's West Indian regiments, then home 




LAFAYETTE AND THE AMERICAN AGENTS. 

' It is precisely in time of danger tka 1 1 wish to share whatever /ortune may have in store /or you^ " 



on a furlough ; and while this Captain Dubois, for that was 
his name, with Lafayette's money behind him, went about 
to secretly purchase and secretly load a vessel, as if it were 
intended for the needs of his own regiment in the West 
Indies, the young marquis slipped over the channel to Eng- 
land to visit his uncle, the French ambassador, in company 



58 JVJ/y THE MARQUIS RAN AWAY TO SEA. 

with the colonel of his regiment, his kinsman, the young 
Prince de Poix. 

He had a fine time in England. All his relatives believed 
that " the crazy American scheme " was quite given up and 
forgotten ; the marquis was received in London society as 
one of the leading young nobles of France; he went to 
Windsor and was presented to King George ; he went to a 
ball at the house of the minister of the colonies, and " hob- 
nobbed " with Sir Henry Clinton on the opera. He was 
to meet Sir Henry at quite a different performance not 
so very long after. 

But, though he had every opportunity to do so, Lafayette 
would not play the spy. He kept away from the British 
shipyards and the British barracks, although he was invited 
to inspect them and see how thoroughly the king was pre- 
paring to punish " his American rebels." Honor was ever 
one of the strongest points in Lafayette's noble character. 

Suddenly he disappeared from London. For three days 
he was in hiding in Paris where he had a last word with 
the American envoys and then slipped away with Baron 
de Kalb to Bordeaux, the port at which was waiting the 
sloop " Victory, " purchased by Captain Dubois with 
Lafayette's money to take the young marquis and his 
fellow filibusters to America. 

But it was not as the Marquis de Lafayette that the 
runaway nobleman stepped as a passenger on board his 
own vessel. That would never do. There were spies every- 



lV//i' THE MARQUIS RAN AWAY TO SEA. 



59 



where, and as, in France, it was necessary to have a per- 
mit or passport before leaving the country, Lafayette's 
name appeared on the permit, which is still preserved as 
a relic at Bordeaux, as " Gilbert du Mottie, Chevalier de 




WINDSOR PALACE. 
Where Lafayette met the King of Englan 



Chavaillac, aged about twenty, rather tall, light-haired, 
embarking on the Victory, Captain Lebourcier command- 
ing, for a voyage to the Cape on private business." 

He did not disguise his name so very much, you see ; 



6o IVJ^y THE MARQUIS RAN AWAY TO SEA. 

for really he was Gilbert du Motier and he was the Che- 
valier de Chavaniac ; but a careless entry clerk, who knew 
nothing about Lafayette's other names, and had no especial 
interest in his " private business," blunderingly misspelled 
them both and so the " Victory " cleared for the Cape. 

It seemed a very easy escape. But the trouble had 
not yet even begun. While waiting at Bordeaux Lafayette 
heard that, somehow, his plans had been discovered ; so the 
" Victory " sailed away without waiting for its necessary 
sailing papers, intending to run into a Spanish port and 
there complete arrangements. 

But even this intention leaked out, and when, on the 
twenty-seventh of March, 1777, the " Victory " run into the 
little Spanish port of Las Pasajes on the Bay of Biscay 
and just across the French border, Lafayette found that 
he had sailed into trouble. Instead of the sailing papers 
that should let him clear for America the young runaway 
marquis found letters from his family protesting, com- 
plaining, and threatening ; he found letters from the king's 
ministers charging him with desertion from the army, 
breaking his oath of allegiance to the king and involving 
the government in serious trouble with England; worse 
than this, he found two officers from the court bearing letters 
under the king's own seal, commanding Lieutenant the 
Marquis de Lafayette of the regiment de Noailles to pro- 
ceed at once to Marseilles and await orders. 

This was serious enough. But, in all those letters, there 



WHY THE MARQUIS RAN AWAY TO SEA. 6 1 

was no word of complaint or censure from his young wife, 
even though, to escape detention, Lafayette had sailed 
away without telling her. She, however, as I have told 
you, knew his desires and approved of the enterprise. She 
would put no obstacle in his way. But his letters from 
home told sad stories about her health and her state of 
mind, and, though Lafayette would have braved all else, — 
even the wrath of the ministers and the king's order of 
arrest, — he could not stand having anything happen to his 
young wife on his account. 

So he turned his back on his cherished plans, said 
good-bye to the " Victory " and his companions, and, crossing 
the border into France, galloped back to Bordeaux, much to 
the disgust of his comrade, the Baron de Kalb, who wrote 
to his wife, " This is the end of his expedition to America to 
join the army of the insurgents." 

But the Baron de Kalb did not yet know the Marquis 
de Lafayette ; neither did that young man's family, friends, 
or rulers. If he believed a thing was right he would do 
it in spite of all opposition. Upon his arrival at Bordeaux 
he learned that he had been recalled by a false alarm, and 
that it was all what boys now-a-days call a " put-up job," 
arranged by his father-in-law, the duke. For his wife, he 
heard, was well and happy, except at the thought of his long 
absence; the government was in no danger of complications 
with England because of his action, although the British 
ambassador at Paris made such a row over Lafayette's expe- 



62 



WHY THE MARQUIS RAN AWAY TO SEA. 



dition that the court was compelled to appear to deal severely 
with the young marquis. In fact, as I have told you, he dis- 
covered that the trouble all came through the methods pur- 
sued by his father-in-law, the Duke d'Ayen, who felt that 
Lafayette was too important and too valuable a young man 
in France and in his family to be allowed to risk his life 
and estate among the savages and " insurgents " of North 




'■ HE GALLOPED BACK TO BORDEAUX." 



America. It was the duke, therefore, who had sent off all 
those " terrible letters," as Lafayette called them, which had 
recalled the young marquis from his cherished enterprise. 

He determined at once to return to the "Victory." But 
the ship still lay at the Spanish port, and the young man had 
no permit to cross the border. He was also under the 
orders of the king to return, and if he should be caught 
travelling the other way it would go hard with him. 



WHY THE MARQUIS RAN AWAY TO SEA. 63 

His father-in-law, the duke, was waiting for him at Mar- 
seilles. And, toward Marseilles, Lafayette started, as soon as 
the letters sent him from Paris had led him to make up his 
mind. While waiting at Bordeaux, he had been joined by a 
young French officer, who also had secured from Silas 
Deane an appointment in the American army, and, together, 
the young men set off in a post-chaise to drive, apparently, 
to Marseilles. 

But when they were well out of Bordeaux, they suddenly 
wheeled about and headed for Spain. In a quiet place, 
Lafayette slipped into the woods. There he hastily disguised 
himself as a post-boy, a sort of mounted carriage-servant, and 
rode on ahead, on horseback, as if he were the guide or 
attendant of the other young man in the post-chaise bound 
for Spain. 

The young man in the post-chaise had a permit to leave 
France, and he hoped to get the marquis across the border 
in the disguise of his horse-boy. But when they were 
almost over the border, driving hard because they were 
warned that officers from the French court were on 
their tracks, suspecting the trick, they came very near to 
disaster. For, at a little village where Lafayette had 
stopped once before, the daughter of the tavern-keeper 
recognized in the pretended post-boy, as he galloped into the 
stable yard demanding fresh horses, the same fine young 
gentleman who had been there before, ordering things in 
great style at the inn. 



64 



JFI/y THE MARQUIS RAN AWAY TO SEA. 



"Oh, m'sieur — " she began. 

But Lafayette swiftly made a warning sign which the 
young girl w-as bright enough to understand. 

" Yes, my child ; m'sieur, my patron desires fresh 

horses at once," Lafayette 
said, quickly. " He is 
just behind. He rides 
post-haste into Spain at 
once." 

The inn-keeper's 
daughter said never a 
word, and " Lafayette's 
luck " did not desert him. 
For -u'hen, soon after, 
he and his companion had 
posted across the border, 
up came their pursuers at 
a gallop, only to be as- 
sured by the inn-keeper's 
daughter that the young 
e^entleman had gone on 
just the opposite road 
from that really taken into Spain. 

So, once again, Lafayette came, on the seventeenth of 
April, to the little Spanish port of Las Pasajes, and while 
all France was ringing with applause over his pluck and 
persistence, and England growled so that France said she 




" THE inn-keeper's DAl'GHTER SAID NEVER A 
WORD." 



BOW LAFAYETTE LANDED IN AMERICA. 65 

" didn't care anyhow " and growled back in return, Lafayette 
stood on the deck of the " Victory " with De Kalb and about 
twenty young Frenchmen, and on the twentieth of April he 
ordered Captain Leboucier to " up anchor " and put to sea 
at once. 

The anchor came up; the "Victory" spread her sails; 
the coast line of Spain and of France faded gradually from 
sight. In spite of all, the expedition was off; in spite of 
his father-in-law and in spite of the king of France the 
young marquis had run away to sea. 



CHAPTER IV. 

HOW LAFAYETTE LANDED IN AMERICA. 

TT is not a surprising thing in these days for a rich young 
"*■ man to own a yacht. It is one of the things to which 
most boys who love blue water aspire ; thousands and 
thousands of dollars are spent each year in the ownership 
and navigation of these pleasure crafts, from the natty 
knockabout to the luxurious and fast-sailing steamer. 

But when Lafayette set sail from the little Spanish port, 
pleasure-sailing was an unknown sport ; men went down to 
the sea in ships for profit or for fighting, but never for fun ; 
and when a young fellow of twenty, rich, well-connected and 
high-toned, deliberately bought a vessel in which to run 



66 NOW LAFAYETTE LANDED IN AMERICA. 

away to sea, and actually did run away to help a struggling 
people in an alien land, the other rich, well-connected and 
high-toned people of France simply held up their hands in 
surprise. 

"What kind of folly is this, my dear child?" wrote the 
stately mother of a young chevalier who had sent her from 
Paris the story of this latest sensation. " What ! the madness 
of knight-errantry still exists? It has disciples? Go to help 
the insurgents ? I am delighted that you reassure me about 
yourself, or I should tremble for you. But since you see 
that M. de Lafayette is a madman I am tranquil." 

Meantime the " madman " was sailing westward in his 
" private yacht." It did not prove to be much of a yacht. 
The " Victory " was little better than a " tub " of a boat, and 
the marquis had been sadly swindled ; she was a slow sailer ; 
she was meagrely furnished and miserably armed, and her 
two old cannons and small supply of muskets would prove 
but a poor defence in case of attack by the pirates and 
privateers that in those days swarmed the seas and terrorized 
" the Atlantic ferry," or by the English cruisers that would 
gladly welcome such game as a ship-load of French officers 
carrying arms, ammunition, and their own services to the 
American insurgents. It reads quite like a chapter out of 
the story of Cuba in 1897, does it not? 

A young man who owns a yacht considers himself the 
head man on deck, you know. Lafayette certainly did; but 
the first thing he discovered was that the captain of the 



HOW LAFAYETTE LANDED IN AMERICA. 67 

" Victory " considered himself a bigger man than the owner. 
No sooner had the " Victory " lost sight of the home coast 
line than Lafayette directed the captain to steer straight for 
a United States port and by the shortest route. 

The clearance papers, without which no sliip can leave 
port for a foreign land, were made out for the West Indies. 
But as this was always the case in those war days when a 
vessel sailed from Europe, America bound, Lafayette did 
not trouble himself about what " his papers " declared. He 
intended to get to the United States, and to get there as 
quickly as possible. 

" Captain," he said, " you will please make your course 
as direct as possible for Charlestown in the Carolinas." 

" The Carolinas, sir ! " exclaimed the captain. " Why^ 
that I cannot. This ship's papers are made out for a port in 
the West Indies and can only protect us on that course. I 
shall sail for the West Indies and you must get transporta- 
tion across to the colonies from there." 

The marquis was astonished. " Sir," he said to the 
captain, " this ship is mine. I direct you to sail to 
Charlestown." 

" Sir," replied the captain, " I am the master of this ship 
and am responsible for her safety. If we are caught by an 
English cruiser, and she finds us headed for North America 
with arms and supplies, we shall at once be made prisoners 
and lose our vessel, our cargo, and our lives. So I shall 
follow my papers and steer for the West Indies." 



68 



HOW LAFAYETTE LAXDED IN AAIERICA. 



" Captain Leboucier," said the marquis, facing the stub- 
born captain, " you may be master of the ' Victory,' but 1 am 
her owner and my decision is final. You will sail at once 

and direct for Charles- 
town in the Carolinas or 
I shall deprive you this 
instant of your command 
and place the ship in 
charge of the mate. I 
have force enough here 
to meet any resistance 
on your part. So make 
your decision." 

It was now Captain 
Leboucier's turn to be 
surprised. He had sup- 
posed that he could do 
just as he pleased with 
this green " land-lubber 
of a boy." But he found 
he had a\\'akened the 
wrong passenger. He 
spluttered and blustered a bit, but he had too much at stake 
to risk losing his command ; so at last he made a full breast 
of it and confessed to the boy owner of the " Victory " that 
it was not so much the ship's papers as the ship's cargo that 
troubled him. For it seems the captain had concluded to try 




LAFAYETTE AND THE CAPTAIN. 

' Sir^' said Lafayette^ " this ship is mine. I direct you to sail to 
Charit'stovi.'^ 



HOW LAFAYETTE LANDED LN AMERLCA. 60 

a little venture of his own on this voyage and had smuo-o-led 
aboard the "Victory" some eight or nine thousand dollars' 
worth of goods and merchandise which he wished to sell in 
West Indian ports and make some outside money for him- 
self. If this cargo were "held up" by an English cruiser he 
would be out of pocket, and, therefore, he didn't wish to run 
the risk. 

" And why did you not say so at once, sir ? " the marquis 
demanded. " I would have helped you out, of course. Sail 
for Charlestown in the Carolinas, captain ; and if we are 
captured, searched, robbed, or destroyed by English cruisers 
or by privateers, I will see that you do not lose a sou. I 
will promise to make your loss good." 

Captain Leboucier came around at once. As long as he 
felt assured that his investment was safe he did not care for 
the danger, and at once he headed for the coast of Carolina. 
But Lafayette, with the thought of hostile war-ships in his 
mind, determined never to surrender, and he made a secret 
agreement with a certain Captain de Bedaulx, a deserting 
Dutch officer from the English army, that in case of attack 
and capture, he and this Captain de Bedaulx would blow up 
the " Victory " rather than surrender her. Which desperate 
affair being arranged, the young marquis went below, and for 
two weeks was dreadfully seasick, as even the greatest of 
heroes have often been, from Ulysses to Napoleon and 
General Grant. 

But when, at last, the seasickness was passed, and the 



yO //OIF LAFAYETTE LANDED LN AA/ER/CA. 

disgusted young Frenchman crawled out on deck again — 
for the voyage across took seven weeks instead of the seven 
days in which the " ocean greyhounds " now make it — he 
found himself divided between two things, — homesickness 
and anxiety to see America. To relieve the first he wrote 
long letters to his wife, which he intended to send by dif- 
ferent routes when he landed in America, so that some of 
his letters could be relied upon to escape capture and reach 
her. The letters he wrote his wife were long and loving ; 
for, though he knew that both of them regretted the separa- 
tion, and appreciated the sacrifice, he could not help wishing 
again and again to see his " dear Adrienne " and their little 
two-year-old daughter, and exclaimed : " Oh, if you knew 
what I have suffered, what weary days I have passed thus 
flying from everything that I love best in the world ! " 

Then he tried to calm her fears, and to assure her that 
the higher the rank the less the danger to him in the war to 
which he was going. 

" Do not allow yourself to feel anxious that I am running 
great danger in the occupation that is before me," he wrote. 
"The post of major-general" (you can imagine how big the 
boy felt when he wrote himself down as major-general ) " the 
post of major-general has always been a warrant of long life. 
It is so different from the service I should ha\'e had in 
France, as colonel, for instance. With my present rank I 
shall only have to attend councils of war. . . . As soon as 
I land I shall be in perfect safety." 



HO W LAFA YETTE LANDED IN AMERICA. 7 1 

You can see how little this young fellow appreciated 
what fighting in America meant, and how little he really 
knew his own rashness, if he thought for an instant that he 
would be content simply to attend councils of war! 

In fact, in this very letter to his wife, he showed that 
action only would suit him. For, comparing his present 
enterprise with the social tour for which his angry but 
" foxy " father-in-law wished to lure him to Marseilles, he 
wrote : " Consider the difference between my occupation and 
my present life, and what they would have been if I had 
gone upon that useless journey. As the defender of that lib- 
erty which I adore ; free, myself, more than any one ; com- 
ing, as a friend, to offer my services to this most interesting 
republic, I bring with me nothing but my own free heart and 
my own good-will, — no ambition to fulfil and no selfish in- 
terest to serve. If I am striving for my own glory, I am at 
the same time laboring for the welfare of the American re- 
public. I trust that, for my sake, you will become a good 
American. It is a sentiment made for virtuous hearts. The 
happiness of America is intimately connected with the happi- 
ness of all mankind ; she is destined to become the safe and 
worthy asylum of virtue, integrity, tolerance, equality, and 
peaceful liberty." 

A pretty good prophet for a young man of nineteen, was 
he not — and for one who really did not know to what he 
was going, nor even the language of the people he was seek- 
ing to serve ? 



•72 HOW LAFAYETTE LANDED LN AMERICA. 

This last defect he was studiously trying to overcome 
during such of the fifty-four days of that long and tedious 
voyage as he was not seasick, planning, writing letters, or 
studying military science with the veteran fighter, De Kalb, 
and his companions. 

" I am making progress with that language," he wrote to 
his wife ; " it will soon become most necessary to me." 

April passed; May passed; June came, and still the 
slow sailing " Victory " had not made the North Atlantic 
coast ; for fifty days the little vessel, which had nothing 
grand about it except its name and the desires of its passen- 
gers, pitched and flopped about, struggling against head 
winds and adverse currents. 

" I am still out on this dreary plain," wrote Lafayette to 
his wife on the seventh day of June, "which is beyond com- 
parison the most dismal place that one can be in. . . . We 
have had small alarms from time to time, but with a little 
care, and reasonably good fortune, I hope to get through 
without serious accident, and I shall be all the more pleased, 
because I am learning every day to be extremely prudent." 

Very soon after writing these words, Lafayette and his 
comrades had need for all their acquired prudence. For, 
while yet out of sight of land, but slowly approaching the 
Carolina coast, the lookout one morning hailed the captain 
and reported a strange sail bearing down upon them. 

At once all was excitement on board the " Victory," in 
the usual impressible French manner. The captain crowded 




LAFAYETTE OFF THE CAROLINA COAST, 
" Site broke out the ne'w colors of the A mericaii rej>ttblic, — the Stars and Stripes.^ 



HOW LAFAYETTE LANDED LN AMERLCA. 75 

on all sail and tried to get away; but to run the old 
" Victory " out of the reach of that fast sailing stranger was 
found to be impossible. Resistance or surrender seemed the 
only choice. 

" She is an English man-of-war," was the word passed 
from man to man, and the marquis and his friends prepared 
for resistance, while the captain shook his head dubiously, 
and the two poor cannons were made ready, the muskets dis- 
tributed, and the crew sent to their stations. 

Nearer and nearer came the stranger, rakish and deter- 
mined, with a formidable threat in the very " cut of her jib," 
and the water parting at her bows. Lafayette had just 
given a significant look to the Dutch deserter, De Bedaulx, 
and the Dutchman had replied with an equally significant 
nod ; the old " Victory," laboring desperately to draw out of 
the path of her pursuer, only flopped and floundered the 
more, when suddenly the stranger came gracefully about, 
and as her broadside w^as presented to the " Victory " she 
broke out from her peak the new colors of the American 
republic, — the stars and stripes ! At once the " Victory " 
displayed French colors, and the "scare turned into ju- 
bilee." 

But even as the lumbering "Victory" sought vainly to 
keep up with the American privateer, and make for Charles- 
ton harbor, oft' to the south, far against the coast line, two 
other strange sails appeared, and the privateer, displaying the 
■danger signal for the information of the French vessel, 



76 HOW LAFAYETTE LANDED LN AMERLCA. 

announced them to be English cruisers looking for priva- 
teers, filibusters, and blockade runners. 

Again all was excitement on board the " Victory." This 
time resistance was felt to be hopeless, for the " Victory's " 
two guns would be useless against an armed cruiser, and 
even the American privateer deemed desertion to be the 
better part of valor. At once she signalled : " good-bye, 
can't stop," and was soon hull down off the coast. 

But again the " Victory " proved the luck of her name 
even if she could not show a quick pair of heels. For, as 
the distance between her and the British cruisers lessened, 
suddenly the wind shifted, and blew strong from the north. 
This would, of course, drive the " yacht " nearer to Charles- 
ton and the enemy, but it would also be a head wind for the 
approaching foemen. At once Captain Leboucier decided 
to take advantage of this north wind and, instead of making 
Charleston, run before the wind into Georgetown Bay, which 
broke into the Carolina coast almost directly on his course. 

At once he headed the " Victory " shoreward, and by 
great good fortune, for he knew nothing whatever of the 
coast thereabouts, he made the opening of the South Inlet 
of Georgetown Bay, — a shallow roadstead, but worth risk- 
ing at a time when, as the sailors say, " any port in a storm." 

The north wind held steady ; the British cruisers labored 
against it in vain, and finally dropped out of sight, and on 
the afternoon of Friday, the thirteenth day of June, 1777, 
the " Victory " ran in through the inlet and came to off 



HOW LAFAYETTE LANDED LN AMERLCA. 



77 



North Island, one of the long, low-lying sand-spits fringing 
the broken South Carolina coast. 




BY PERMISSION OF THE LIGHTHOUSE BOARD. 



WHERE LAFAYETTE LANDED IN AMERICA. 

Georgetown Lighthouse, North island ^ on the South Carolina coast ; here Lafayette sailed into the bay. 



To-day, above the South Inlet, at the entrance to George- 
town Bay, the towering white walls and the protecting rays 
of Georgetown light show the way over the bar; but when 



78 HOW LAFAYETTE LANDED IN AMERICA. 

the " Victory " felt its way in for shelter and security, like 
some hunted animal scudding for cover, there was no such 
thing as a lighthouse on the sands, and it was only good 
luck and a favoring wind that carried the blockade runner 
into safe harbor. It was a fortunate combination; "but 
it was not the only time in my life," so Lafayette de- 
clared many years after, in referring to his adventure, " that 
the elements have conspired in my favor." Wind and rain, 
you see, are oftentimes as welcome in the hour of perilous 
adventure as are clear and sunny days. 

Neither captain nor crew could tell just where they were. 
But of one thing Lafayette was certain ; he was on the Caro- 
lina coast; the Carolinas were American and rebel; there- 
fore, wherever he was, he should be among friends. So, acting 
on this course of reasoning, he proposed to Baron de Kalb 
that they should go ashore in one of the " Victory's " boats, 
find out where- they w^ere, and perhaps pick up a pilot to take 
the " Victory " into safe anchorage or guide her around to 
Charleston. 

The baron thought the plan of the marquis wise. So 
the ship's yawl was ordered out ; seven men were told off as 
a crew to row it ashore, and into it went Lafayette, De Kalb, 
and some other officers, a half dozen passengers in all. 

The explorers dropped over the side, the oars fell into the 
water, and a little after two o'clock in the afternoon the yawl 
cast off from the " Victory " on its voyage of discovery and 
information. 



HOW LAFAYETTE LANDED IN AMERICA. 79 

Both discovery and information proved uncertain quan- 
tities, iiowever. Georgetown Bay is broad and broken with 
inlets, bars, and islands, and in those days there were, along 
the low shores, little signs of life or occupation. The rowers 
pulled this way and that until, finally, as night closed down, 
they found themselves rowing up the North Inlet, where, 
around North Island, the channel of Georgetown Bay con- 
nects with the sea at its northern entrance. 

They rowed along the silent shores, wondering if America 
were really inhabited, when suddenly, ahead, they saw a burn- 
ing flare and soon came up to some negroes dragging for 
oysters. 

Baron de Kalb was the only man in the yawl whose 
English could really be relied upon, so he hailed the darkeys 
and asked them who they were and where they were ; whether 
there was safe anchorage for a ship thereabouts and where 
he and his friends could find a pilot to take them around to 
Charleston. 

" Golly, massa ! Don't know nuffin 'bout it," one of the 
negroes replied, bewildered by the string of questions flung 
at him in broken English by the Bavarian soldier, and rather 
fearful of this boat-load of " Hessians," as he thought them 
to be. " We'm belongs to Major Huger, we do. He'm our 
massa." 

" Major Huger. He is of ze American army ? " demanded 
the baron. 

" Ya'as, sah ; he'm a Continentaler," the negro replied. 



8o HOW LAFAYETTE LANDED LN AMERLCA. 

And he told the Frenchmen that there was a pilot to be 
found somewhere on the upper end of North Island, that he 
could show the gentlemen where the pilot lived and take them 
also to the big house, — " Major Huger's house, sah — our 
massa; he'll be right glad to see you genTmen, sah; he'll be 
powerful glad," the black oysterman declared. And Lafay- 
ette decided to seek out Major Huger at once. 

So you see that really Lafayette's first reception and 
welcome on American shores were at the hands of black 
Americans, — slaves in a land fighting for freedom ; slaves 
after liberty was won, until a greater than revolutionary 
patriot or French hero was to enfranchise and deliver them 
and make America indeed the land of liberty. 

But when the yawl attempted to follow its guide, the 
oyster-boat, it was discovered that the tide was falling fast 
and that it would be unsafe for strange rowers to keep to the 
channel and pull the big yawl up to a safe landing-place, if 
indeed they were not left high and dry on the flats. 

There was nothing for it but to take to the oyster-boat. 
So, leaving the most of his party in the yawl, greatly to their 
disgust, no doubt, Lafayette, De Kalb, and a young French 
American named Price (who evidently could not speak his 
own language as well as the Bavarian Frenchman) stepped 
aboard the clumsy and dirty oyster-boat, and with an " adieu!" 
to their comrades in the yawl and a " bon voyage! " in return 
pulled into the night with their negro boatmen. 

Creeping along the shallowing reach they skirted the 



HOW LAFAYETTE LANDED IN AMERICA. 8 1 

shore of North Island, and, finally, about midnight they saw 
a light, shining as if from a house on shore. 

" Dat's it, sah; dat's Major Huger's, sah," said the oyster- 
man. " We set you gen'l'men ashore heah, and you jes' follow 
de light, and Major Huger he be powerful glad to see you." 

The oyster-boat ran alongside the landing and, with 
stiffened limbs and a goodly fee to his colored boatmen, 
the marquis and his two companions stepped on American 
soil. Lafayette, at last, had one ambition gratified. He was 
in America, the land for whose freedom he had come to fight, 
and which, all France supposed, was to fervently welcome 
him. , 

The fervor in the welcome was not just then apparent as 
the three bewildered Frenchmen stood on the rickety boat 
landing at North Island, alone and at midnight, with nothing 
to guide them but a distant and uncertain light. 

But, as is wisest in all times of doubt and difficulty, they 
did as the negro boatman advised them, — they followed the 
light. 

Now it seems in those troublesome times, when English 
cruisers and privateers were coasting the American shores 
for prey or booty, the seaside dwellers lived in continual 
fear of raid and attack, and were ever on the watch for 
marauders. 

So, as Lafayette and his two companions went stum- 
bling up from the shore heading for the light, their coming 
aroused the guardians of the house, and at once the sharp 



82 HOW LAFAYETTE LANDED IN AMERICA. 

warning bark of a watch-dog broke the silence ; the bark 
swelled to a chorus as all the other dogs in the pack took up 
the cry ; the lights disappeared from the house ; windows 
were flung up and men with guns stood at each darkened sash. 

" Hollo ! who goes there ? Stand or we fire," came the 
threatening call. 

"Friends, sir; friends only," De Kalb in broken English 
hastened to reply to the challenge. " We are French offi- 
cers, sir, just set ashore from our ship in your waters. We 
come to fight for America and we seek a pilot to bring our 
vessel to safe anchorage and shelter for ourselves." 

Even before the explanation was half given, the house 
changed from hostility to hospitality ; lights flashed out 
again ; welcoming hands unbarred the door, and on its 
threshold, with black servants holding lights aloft and 
hurriedly dressed forms just outlined in the shadows, stood 
a smiling gentleman and a small boy, — for you can always 
depend upon a small boy to be on hand whenever anything 
exciting is about to happen. 

" Gentlemen, I am proud to welcome you," cried the 
man in the doorway, extending his hands in greeting. 
" Down, Bruno ! down. Vixen ! " — this to the vociferous 
dogs — "I am Major Huger, Major Benjamin Huger of 
the American army; this is my shore house where we camp 
down in the summer. Come in, gentlemen, come in. This 
house and all it holds are at the service of brave Frenchmen 
who come to fight for our liberties." 




LAFAYETTE'S WELCOME TO AMERICA. 
* Come in, getttlemen. This house and a li it holds areyoJtrs.*" 



HOW LAFAYETTE LAXDED IX AMERICA. <,X^ 

He almost pulled the oldest man — the Baron de Kalb — 
into the house in the excessive cordiality of his welcome; 
while the small boy. catching at the hand of the young 
marquis, who looked little more than a boy in that light, 
dragged him into the spacious hall. 

" Permit me. Major Huger," said the punctilious De 
Kalb. •• to introduce ourselves to you who have so gener- 
ously welcomed us. This. sir. is the leader and head of 
our expedition, the Seigneur Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de 
Lafavette : this is Monsieur Price of Sauveterre, and I, sir, 
am Johann Kalb. at your service.' 

" The Baron de Kalb, monsieur the major."' broke in 
Lafavette. " a brigadier in the army of the king of France 
and aid to the Marechal Duke de Broglie." 

But Major Huger had ears but for one part of this 
introduction. Already the news of the young French noble- 
man's determination to fight for American liberty had 
crossed the Atlantic. 

" The Marquis de Lafayette ! " he exclaimed, grasping the 
voung man by both hands. " Sir. my house is honored by 
vour presence ; sir, we have heard of you — who has not ? 
Sir. command me in anything and everything. I will see to 
vour pilot, vour vessel, your friends. Oblige me by resting 
here to-night and in the morning all things shall be arranged. 
Francis, escort the marquis to the dining-room ; this is my 
son, gentlemen, Francis Kinloch Huger, and proud he is to 
welcome those who sacrifice time and ease to fight for the 



86 HOW LAFAYETTE LANDED LN AMERLCA. 

liberty of his native land. Gentlemen, be seated. Here, 
Hector, Pompey, take these gentlemen's wraps; stir your- 
selves ! Gentlemen, your healths ! " 

" And that of the Cause ! " responded the Baron de Kalb. 

And so in the midst of generous hospitality, with a 
blessed night's sleep in a " Christian bed " for the first time 
in eight weeks, Lafayette passed his first night in America. 

As for Francis Kinloch Huger, that small boy was capti- 
vated by the young Frenchman. He became a hero-wor- 
shipper, at once, and his dreams that night were full of the 
boy marquis. It was a hero-worship that was not to cease 
with that midnight reception on a Carolina sea-island ; for 
that boy's life was to be strongly and romantically mingled, 
in later years, with that of the noble Marquis de Lafayette, 
who on a June night in 1777 had taken this boy's house by 
storm and, after months of anxiety and adventure, had, at 
last, safely landed on the shores of America. 



HO IV THE MARQUIS CONQUERED CONGRESS. Sj 



CHAPTER V. 

HOW THE MARQUIS CONQUERED CONGRESS. 

\ GOOD night's sleep greatly refreshed and strengthened 
^ ^ the weary, ship-worn marquis, for, like any young fellow 
of nineteen, he recovered quickly from fatigue and privation ; 
and, besides, he was in America. He had, as he expressed 
it, " retired to rest rejoiced that he had at last attained the 
haven of his wishes and was safely landed in America beyond 
the reach of his pursuers." 

He had not yet attained the end of his mission, — the 
command of a major-general in the American army. That, 
however, he felt was only a matter of time. With his letters of 
introduction and the contract he had made with Mr. Deane 
he was confident he had only to present himself before the 
American Congress to be received as cordially and welcomed 
as enthusiastically as he had been greeted and " made at 
home" by Major Huger, in that comfortable Southern sea- 
shore mansion. 

So he sank to sleep contentedly, and when he awoke in 
the morning he was in a blissful state of mind. 

As, years after, he recalled that first morning in America, 
he still spoke with all the enthusiasm of the homesick, seasick 



88 



HOW THE MAR Q CIS COXQUERED CONGRESS. 



boy who had been made to feel that he was a welcome and 
honored guest. 

" The next morning," he said, " was beautiful. The nov- 
elty of everything around me, the room, the bed with its 






wwv^^^pfl^r 




.S1N(;ING FOR LAFAYETTE. 
' Every crantty resoutteis -with the lovely name of Liberty.^ 



mosquito curtains, the black servants who came to ask my 
wishes, the beauty and strange appearance of the country as I 
could see it from my window clothed in lu.xuriant verdure, — 
all conspired to produce upon me an effect like magic and to 
impress me with indescribable sensations." 



ffOJy THE MARQUIS CONQUEhED CONGRESS. 89 

His comrades in the yawl had been hunted up and 
brought to the house ; a pilot had been sent to the " Vic- 
tory," and, in fact, everything hospitable and helpful was so 
cheerfully done by Major Huger and his family that, as 
Lafayette wrote his wife, " the manners of this people are 
simple, honest, and dignified. The wish to oblige, the love of 
country, and freedom reign here together in sweet equality. 
All citizens are brothers. They belong to a country where 
every cranny resounds with the lovely name of Liberty. My 
sympathy with them makes me feel as if I had been here for 
twenty years." 

Everything, you see, was delightful at the start, and this 
enthusiastic French boy felt sure there would be for him, 
everywhere in America, a repetition of the South Carolina 
welcome. So, in confidence and anticipation, in high hopes 
and higher spirits, he set out for the long journey to Phila- 
delphia, where the American Congress was in session. 

He was to go by land this time. He and his comrades 
had experienced quite enough of ship life and preferred to 
trust to the uncertainties of colonial country roads. Besides, 
the " Victory " was " in limbo," as the saying is. For when 
the pilot sent by Major Huger reported that there was not 
sufficient depth of water for the ship in Georgetown Bay, 
Lafayette sent the " Victory," in charge of the pilot, around to 
Charleston. But when he heard of the activity and watchful- 
ness of the British cruisers he hurried a message to the captain, 
bidding him run the " Victory " ashore and burn her rather 



90 



HOW THE MARQUIS CONQUERED CONGRESS. 



than let the British capture her. The captain, however, re- 
membered his cargo and his own little venture ; he decided to 
run the risk, and, thanks to a favoring wind, the " Victory " 

escaped the cruis- 
ers and, as he re- 
ported, "sailed into 
Charles Town har- 
bor in broad day- 
light without see- 
ing either friends 
or enemies." 

Thereupon La- 
fayette and De 
Kalb, mounted on 
the only horses 
Major Huger 
could spare or 
find in that un- 
inhabited seaside 
section, set out for 
Charleston, while 
the other French- 
men trudged along 
on foot. And when they had reached that famous and hos- 
pitable old Carolina town a cordial welcome was extended 
them. Lafayette, as one of his companions says, was received 
" with all the honors due to a Marshal of France." 




FROM AN OLD I'KINT. 

THE MARQUIS DE LAFAYETTE. 
A s he looked upon hisjirsi coining to A tnerica. 



HOW THE MARQUIS CONQUERED CONGRESS. gi 

Do you wonder that this young Frenchman felt very 
much " set up " and elated ? 

The Marquis de Lafayette was, however, a shrewd young 
man, even if he was an enthusiastic one. For, even in those 
days the interviewer was in the land ; but Lafayette refused 
to be interviewed. 

" I have every reason to feel highly gratified at my recep- 
tion in Charles Town," he wrote his wife, " but I have not yet 
explained my plans to any one. I judge it best to wait until 
I have presented myself to the Congress before making a 
statement as to the projects I have in view." 

He wished to be off on this journey to Congress as 
speedily as possible. So he proceeded to dispose of the 
" Victory " and her cargo in order to obtain the necessary 
money for his own and his comrades' expenses and support. 

But when he attempted to do this he found the French 
merchants who had sold him the ship and the French cap- 
tain who sailed her had so tied him up with agreements and 
provisos and commissions (all of which he had signed at 
Bordeaux without realizing what he was doing, because he 
was in such a hurry to be off) that, instead of having any 
money coming to him, he was actually in debt, and he had 
to go to work trying to borrow enough money in Charleston 
to get away from town. All of which goes to prove that 
even enthusiasm should not blind people to understand just 
what they are signing, and that it is always best, for young 
and old alike, to look before they leap. And yet, on the 



92 HOW THE MARQUIS CONQUERED CONGRESS. 

Other hand, if Lafayette had not taken his leap, regardless of 
consequences, where would have been one of the most roman- 
tic and inspiring episodes in American history, which we of 
to-day never tire of reading and applauding ? 

Just at that time, however, it must be confessed that the 
American Congress and the American commander-in-chief 
were very, very tired of this particular kind of romance. 
The American colonies had risen in rebellion against the 
king of England ; they had organized revolution and had 
declared themselves free and independent states ; they wel- 
comed every expression of friendliness and sympathy from 
European nations, and were working hard to secure recogni- 
tion and assistance at foreign courts. But the American 
people had raised and officered their own army. They had 
placed at the head of it a great and capable commander, and 
had associated with him, as leaders and officers, those of their 
own countrymen who seemed best fitted to the tasks of leader- 
ship as generals, colonels, and captains. 

But as the war with England progressed, there came to 
America swarms of European soldiers — French, Spanish, 
German, Dutch, Polish, and Italian — who, because they 
were experienced soldiers, counted their services far ahead 
of those of the American " peasants," and demanded high 
offices in the American army, from commander-in-chief to 
colonel and captain. These foreign volunteers were so many 
and so persistent that the American Congress grew just a bit 
tired of the assumption and demands of these adventurers. 




"A GREAT AND CAPAliLE COMMANDER." 
General George Washiitgton, of Virgiyiia. 



HOW THE MARQUIS CONQUERED CONGRESS. 95 

who were out for money rather than to show their sympathy, 
and who, also, ahiiost insisted upon teUing the American 
Congress just what it should do. 

A regiment of colonels and an army of major-generals can 
do very little real fighting, and, as none of these foreign 
ofihcers would put up with anything less than the highest 
rank. Congress, preferring first to recognise able and earnest 
Americans, found itself simply flooded with requests it could 
not grant, while General Washington himself protested in 
vigorous language. 

" Their ignorance of our language and their inability to 
recruit men," he wrote to the president of Congress in Febru- 
ary, 1777, "are insurmountable obstacles to their being in- 
grafted into our continental battalions ; for our officers, who 
have raised their men, and have served through the war upon 
pay that has hitherto not borne their expenses, would be dis- 
gusted if foreigners were put over their heads ; and I assure 
you, few or none of these gentlemen look lower than field- 
officers' commissions. To give them all brevets, by which 
they have rank, and draw pay without doing any service, is 
saddling the continent with vast expense ; and to form them 
into corps would be only establishing corps of officers ; for, 
as I have said before, they cannot possibly raise any men." 

So, you see, with the Congress and the commander-in- 
chief set against this rush of overzealous and self-seeking 
foreigners (mostly from France) in a scramble for command- 
ing positions in the American army, the outlook was not so 



g6 HOW THE MARQUIS CONQUERED CONGRESS. 

bright nor so promising as Lafayette and De Kalb and their 
companions anticipated. Evidently, too, the asjDiring Duke 
de Broglie was to get a " set-back." 

But, equipping his expedition with the money he had 
borrowed in Charleston, Lafayette and his " caravan," as he 
called it, certain that recognition and position awaited them, 
started from Charleston on the twenty-fifth of June, 1777, 
headed for Philadelphia and Congress. 

The " caravan," indeed, was quite like a procession. At 
the head rode one of Lafayette's men dressed in the uniform 
of a French hussar, and behind him rode the marquis and 
Baron de Kalb in a queer, old-fashioned open carriage with 
a front seat for the driver, while at Lafayette's wheel rode 
his body servant, valet, or " squire." Next came a one-horse 
chaise with two colonels, Lafayette's " chief counsellors ; " 
then followed another with more French officers, then the 
baggage, and bringing up the rear, a negro on horseback. 

From Charleston to Philadelphia in June is a hot ride 
even in a parlor-car : in open carriages it is still worse ; 
while, over the dreadful clearings called " roads " in 1777, the 
journey was one long series of accidents and discomforts. 
Their guide proved no guide at all. In four days their car- 
riages were jolted into splinters ; their horses went lame or 
broke down altogether; much of their baggage had to be left 
behind, and what they took with them was mostly stolen 
before the journey ended. They spent all their money for 
fresh horses and other Avagons, and the necessaries of life, 



ffOW THE MARQUIS CONQUERED CONGRESS. 97 

and even then, because of the dreadful roads, most of the 
journey was made on foot, while the poor Frenchmen, sick, 
weary, and hungry, sleeping in the woods, and worn down by 
the hardships and hot weather, would have begun to doubt 
whether American liberty was really worth all it was costing 
them, had not Lafayette, hopeful and enthusiastic in spite of 
all privations and misadventures, kept up their spirits, cheer- 
fully shared all their trials, and held ever before them 
the reception and appreciation they were certain to find in 
Philadelphia. 

" You have heard," he wrote to his wife, " how brilliantly 
I started out in a carriage. I have to inform you " (this was 
written from Petersburg in Virginia) " that we are now 
on horseback after having broken the wagons in my usual 
praiseworthy fashion, and I expect to write you before long 
that we have reached our destination on foot." 

On the twenty-seventh of July, after a tedious and dis- 
astrous journey of nine hundred miles in thirty-two days, 
Lafayette and his travel-stained company entered Philadel- 
phia — "in a pitiable condition," one of his comrades de- 
clared. But they supposed now that all their troubles were 
over; so, after " brushing themselves up," and making them- 
selves presentable, they proceeded to wait upon the president 
of Congress with their letters of introduction and their con- 
tracts with Mr. Deane. 

Now the president of the American Congress at that 
time was Mr. John Hancock, of Massachusetts, a patriot of 



98 



HOIV THE MAJiQUIS CONQUERED CONGRESS. 



prominence and integrity, with a very bold signature, and a 
very high opinion of the Honorable John Hancock, presi- 
dent of Congress. He felt himself to be the chief man in 

all America ; he set 
up a great show of 
state and dignity, for 
all of which he un- 
complainingly paid 
out of his own pocket, 
and he demanded, as 
his right, the proper 
amount of recogni- 
tion and respect. 

Whether or not 
he had received and 
read Franklin's flat- 
tering introduction of 
Lafayette, it is cer- 
tain that he did not 
fully appreciate the 
meaning or the ex- 
tent of the young 
Frenchman's sacrifices in behalf of American liberty. He 
merely looked upon Lafayette and his companions as 
another " batch " of adventurous Frenchmen looking for 
a job, and at once, with scarcely a word of welcome, he 
referred them to Gouverneur Morris, the chairman of the 




THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS. 
^*John Hancock, of Massachusetts, a patriot of protninence atiti integrity" 



HOW THE MARQUIS CONQUERED CONGRESS. 99 

committee " who," so he told Lafayette, " had such matters in 
charge." 

To Mr. Morris, also a man with whom the later story 
of Lafayette's life was to be singularly connected, this 
travel-stained band of place-seeking Frenchmen seemed no 
different from any of the other appointment-hunting for- 
eigners, whom no one wanted, and who simply hung about 
Congress as suppliants who soon " wore their welcome 
out." 

So Mr. Morris told the marquis and the baron to call 
again. 

" Meet me to-morrow, gentlemen, at the door of the Con- 
gress," he said. " Meantime I will examine your papers and 
see what we can do for you." 

The next day the marquis and the baron were " at the 
door of the Congress," exactly on time. But Mr. Morris 
was not. Instead, he kept them waiting a long time, fretting 
at this unexpected coolness and delay. 

At last he came out to them with another gentleman 
whom he introduced as Mr. Lovell, and who, he told them, 
was " intrusted with the matters that concern people of your 
nationality. Hereafter, please communicate with him." And 
then Mr. Morris left them still waiting in the street, at the 
door of the Congress. 

Mr. Lovell was a member of the Committee on Foreien 
Affairs, and evidently he counted the marquis and the baron 
and the gentlemen who accompanied them simply as " for- 



lOO 



HOW THE MARQUIS CONQUERED CONGRESS. 



eign affairs. 



But he spoke French well, and he at once 

"got down to business." 
" Gentlemen," he said, 
not inviting them into 
the building, but talking 
to them in the street, 
" like a set of adventur- 
ers," as one of the French 
officers indignantly de- 





clared, " you say you 
have authority from Mr. 
Deane ? " 

"Certainly, sir," re- 
plied De Kalb, "as our 
contracts show." 

" This is most annoy- 
ing," said Mr. Lovell. 
"We authorized Mr. 
Deane to send us four 
French engineers ; in- 
stead, he sent us some engineers who are no engineers, and 



•■ AT THE DOOR OF THE CONGRESS." 

Front and rear vieius of Jnde^eniicncc Hall, Philadelphia^ in 
■which the Continental Congress Imd its sessions. 



HOW THE MARQUIS CONQUERED CONGRESS. lOI 

some artillerists who have never seen service. We instructed 
Mr. Franklin to send us four engineers, and he has now sent 
them. There seems to be nothing for you to do here, gentle- 
men. French officers seem to have taken a great fancy to 
enter our service without being invited. It is true we were 
in need of a few experienced officers last year, but now we 
have plenty of experienced men, and can promise no more 
positions. Gentlemen, I wish you good morning." 

Here was a sad ending to all their high hopes and antic- 
ipations. Mr. Lovell's curt announcement (" more like a 
dismissal than a welcome," so Lafayette declared) fell like a 
wet blanket on all their schemes and desires. 

" But, sir," began the baron, recovering first from the 
shock of refusal, " Mr. Deane promised — " 

"Oh, Mr. Deane, Mr. Deane!" petulantly exclaimed the 
member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs. " Mr. Deane 
has exceeded his authority, sir. Mr. Deane has promised too 
much and we cannot recognize his authority. We have not 
even a colonel's commission to give away to any foreign offi- 
cer ; certainly, not a major-general's. The Congress is sorely 
tried by these demands, and General Washington declares 
that he is haunted and teased to death by the importunity of 
some and the dissatisfaction of others. Gentlemen, I am 
sorry to disappoint you, but I must. We can provide 
nothing and promise nothing. Again I bid you good morn- 
ing." And then he, too, left them on the street. 

The Frenchmen looked at one another in speechless as- 



I02 HOW THE MARQUIS CONQUERED CONGRESS. 

tonishment and dismay. Then their indignation burst out 
in a torrent of French expressions. 

" Ah ! these Americans ; these ingrates ! " cried one. 
" What do they mean ? After all we have suffered for their 
cause, who could expect such a reception as this? Who 
would think it possible that the Marquis de Lafayette and 
the Baron de Kalb and the French officers, recommended as 
we have been, and secretly approved, if not openly avowed, 
by the government of France, could be so thrust aside as 
mere adventurers ? Ah, it is brutal. These Americans 
indeed are peasants." 

" He says some of our compatriots have proved worthless 
and that the Congress is besieged by adventurers," exclaimed 
another. " Can he not tell the difference between those low 
fellows and a gentleman like the Marquis de Lafayette — 
and like us ? Bah ! the stupids ! " 

" Are my name, my person, or my services proper objects 
to be thus trifled with or laughed at ? " demanded the angry 
baron, who felt himself to be really the most important per- 
sonage in the party. " It is ridiculous, gentlemen, that offi- 
cers like ourselves should leave our homes and families and 
affairs to cross the sea under a thousand different dangers, 
only to be received and looked upon with contempt by those 
from whom we expected but the warmest thanks. Oh, it is 
not to be borne. I will take action against Deane and his 
successors. I will have heavy damages for this indignity." 

But the young marquis said, thoughtfully, " Let us not 



HOW THE MARQUIS CONQUERED CONGRESS. 



103 



talk of damages, my friend; let us talk of doing. Surely, 
the Congress did not solicit us to leave our homes and cross 
the seas to lead its army. 
But I for one will not go 
back. If the Congress will 
not accept me as a major- 
general, behold ! I will fight 
for American liberty as a 
volunteer." 

And that, indeed, was pre- 
cisely what the wilful but 
wise young Frenchman pro- 
ceeded to do. While his 
comrades fretted and fumed 
and grew still more indig- 
nant over their " turn down," 
as you boys of to-day would 
call it, the Marquis de La- 
fayette went to his lodgings 
and wrote a letter to the 
president of the Congress. 

In this letter, after ex- 
plaining why he came over, 
under what conditions and 
in spite of what discouragements, Lafayette insisted that 
Silas Deane's promise, Benjamin Franklin's endorsement, 
and his own sacrifices and desires should lead the Con- 




BARTHOLDl'S STATUE OF LAFAYETTE. 

hi Madison Squnre, New York City. " / wilt fight /or 
.American Liberty as a ->olmitcer." 



I04 HOW THE MARQUIS CONQUERED CONGRESS. 

gress to recognize his claims and grant his request. He 
was, he declared, mindful of the embarrassments and dis- 
tresses of the Congress, and he had no desire to increase 
them, but in proof of his earnestness and determination to be 
of service to America, he begged, while insisting that his sac- 
rifices already made for the cause should be acknowledged, to 
ask but two favors at the hands of Congress : " First, that I 
serve without pay and at my own expense ; and, the other, 
that I be allowed to serve at first as a volunteer." 

This proposition quite took away the breath of the Hon- 
orable John Hancock, president of the Congress, and his 
associates. The main difficulty with which they had to wres- 
tle was that of money; so, when a young French officer of 
high station, wealth, and refinement was so deeply in sym- 
pathy with their cause as to offer to serve in the American 
army as an unpaid volunteer, their opinion of him was 
changed at once. 

They turned again to the letter from Doctor Franklin 
recommending him to their consideration. 

" Those who censure him as imprudent," Franklin had 
written, " do nevertheless applaud his spirit, and we are satis- 
fied that the civilities and respect that may be shown him 
will be serviceable to our affairs here, as pleasing not only to 
his powerful relations and to the court, but to the whole 
French nation." 

The president of Congress was a man impressed by just 
such things, and he began to feel that he had been rather 



HO IV THE MARQUIS CONQUERED CONGRESS. 



105 



discourteous to this highly connected young Frenchman who 
now made so generous an offer of his services and his life. 
His request was certainly vastly different from that of the 
other foreign officers and gentlemen who sought service in 
the American army for their own selfish interests and ad- 




LAFAYETTE AND THE CONGRESSMAN. 
"//(? tested the sincerity of his offer, and courteously but shrewdly questioned tlu young /ellow.^^ 

vancement. So another member of Congress, neither so 
bluff nor so brusque as Mr. Morris or Mr. Lovell, was sent 
to Lafayette with a sort of apology, and, in a private inter- 
view, tested the sincerity of his offer, and courteously but 
shrewdly sounded the young fellow as to the full extent of 
his desires, his influence, and his enthusiasm. 



I06 HOW THE MARQUIS CONQUERED CONGRESS. 

As a result of all this private conference and favorable 
report, the Congress of the United States on the thirty- 
first day of July, 1777, passed the following resolution: 
" Whereas, the Marquis de Lafayette, out of his great zeal to 
the cause of liberty, in which the United States are engaged, 
has left his family and connections, and, at his own expense, 
come over to offer his services to the United States, without 
pension or particular allowance, and is anxious to risk his 
life in our cause, therefore Resolved that his services be 
accepted, and that, in consideration of his zeal, illustrious 
family, and connections, he have the rank and commission of 
major-general in the army of the United States." 

Thus, after all, you see, this persistent French boy had 
his way. He had conquered the American Congress ; he 
was a major-general at nineteen ; he was to be permitted 
to realize one of his earliest dreams and controlling ambi- 
tions, — to help on the progress of the world, to fight for the 
liberty of a nation and the freedom of man. 



HOir HE irON THE COAIMAiXDER- IN- CHIEF. \Q- 



CHAPTER VI. 

HOW HE WON THE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF. 

^HOUGHTFULNESS and generosity are amcng the 
things that make people lovable and popular, and they 
were very prominent traits in the character of the young 
Marquis de Lafayette. 

He had obtained his desires; but he did not say, as suc- 
cessful people too often do, " Well ! /'/// all right, anyhow," 
and go off and forget all about his companions. 

Instead of this, he wrote to the president of the Congress 
a queer but careful letter in English, which you may see 
to-day in the State Department in Washington, in which, 
while thanking " the Honorable mr. Hancok," as he spelled 
it, and the Congress for accepting his services, he added this 
sentence — excellently expressed and capitally written (even 
though lacking in capitals) for one who had such brief experi- 
ence in speaking and writing English : " it is now as an 
american that I'l mention every day to congress the officers 
who came over with me, whose interests are for me as my 
own, and the consideration which they deserve by their 
merits, their ranks, their state and reputation in france." 

He kept his promise with unfailing zeal. 



I08 HO IV HE WON THE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF. 

" He did everything that was possible for our appoint- 
ment," one of his French soldier-companions said, " but in 
vain, for he had no influence. But if he had his way, De 
Kalb would have been major-general and we should all have 
had places." 

So, you see, it was not through any lack of Lafayette's 
interest that the French officers met final disappointment, 
as unfortunately they did. Congress was simply unable to 
give them commissions or places. But it paid their expenses 
back to France, where most of them bitterly complained of 
the " ingratitude " of the Americans. One of them, however,, 
the Dutch deserter from the British army. Captain de 
Bedaulx, who was a veteran soldier, and who, you remem- 
ber, was pledged with Lafayette to blow up the " Victory " 
rather than be captured, was made a captain in the American 
army ; two others were retained by Lafayette as aides-de- 
camp, and one was engaged by Congress as draughtsman 
and engineer. As for Baron de Kalb, who had come over, 
as you remember, with the secret intention of " working " 
Congress to make his patron, the Count de Broglie, "Gen- 
eralissimo of the American armies," he soon saw how im- 
possible and ridiculous a scheme that was ; indeed, he very 
nearly lost the opportunity of finding service himself in the 
army. He had finally given up his endeavors, although 
Lafayette did not, and was actually on his way to take the 
first ship home when a messenger .from Congress came 
galloping after him, caught up with him at Bethlehem in 



HO IV HE WON THE COMMAND EH- IN- CHIEF. 



109 



Pennsylvania, and there turned him back with the announce- 
ment that Congress, having to ballot for one more major- 
general in the army of the United States, had elected the 
Baron de Kalb. 

As for the Marquis de Lafayette, he had, in his letter 
of thanks to Hancock, expressed the wish to serve " near 
the person of General Washington till such time as he may 
think proper to entrust me with a division of the army." 

George Washington, generalissimo and commander-in-chief 
of the American army, was very fond of bright young men. 
He was what is called an optimist, looking on the bright side 
of things even when they appeared to have no bright side, 
and he saw that young men were best for action and achieve- 
ment. But they must be bright young men ; he could stand 
no dullards or drones about him ; neither could he put up 
with what you would call " fresh " and self-important young 
fellows who " knew it all." He demanded implicit obedience 
and willing service, and, while he was ready to listen to all 
suggestions from his subordinates, young and old alike, he 
desired no one to act upon any scheme or plan without his 
approval; for the hasty and unsupported act of one over- 
zealous or hot-headed youth might disarrange all the deeply 
studied and carefully matured plans of the commander-in- 
chief. He had far too many experiences of this sort during 
the trying times of the American Revolution. 

With this attitude toward the young men who flocked to 
his service, Washington, who was a keen-eyed and perfect 



I lO 



HOW HE JVOJV THE COMMANDER - IN- CHIEF. 



reader of character, saw through the shallowness or recog- 
nized the worth of the earnest, active young men about him. 
That is why he disliked Aaron Burr and why he liked Al- 
exander Hamilton, 
both of whom served 
him as aids ; and it 
was near to this 
man, already a hero 
to his hero-worship- 
ping soul, that the 
young Marquis de 
Lafayette desired 
speedy service. 

It was a serious 
time in the affairs of 
the struggling re- 
public, fighting for 
existence, when La- 
fayette sought ser- 
vice in its army. 
Defeated at Long 
Island, driven across 
New Jersey, Washington had triumphed in his brilliant 
Christmas dash on Trenton, and, though apparently defeated 
at Princeton, had held his army and secured the advantage 
of a stubbornly-won foothold from which he could annoy and 
menace the British commander. 




ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 
A young man -whotn lVashi7ig;ton liked. 



HOW HE WON THE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF. 



I I I 



And this, when Lafayette sought him out, he was doing, 
with a volunteer army, short of arms, short of supplies, 
insufihciently clothed and always hungry, an army wanting 
in all things save 
courage, lacking in 
everything but lead- 
ership, secure in 
nothing save the 
justice of their cause, 
the integrity of their 
commander, and 
their own persistent 
devotion to the cause 
of liberty. 

It was at the 
moment when all 
things combined to 
darken the prospect 
of success, when Bur- 
goyne was marching 
from Canada for the 
invasion of New 
York and the capture of the valley of the Hudson; when 
Howe was threatening Philadelphia and preparing to join 
Burgoyne and " stamp out " the rebellion, that Lafayette was 
invited to a dinner in Philadelphia " to meet the commander- 
in-chief." 




AARON BURR. 

A young man whom Washington distrusted. 



112 HO IV HE IVON THE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF. 

Washington, as you know, was not favorable to these 
foreign major-generals; he held that it was an injustice to 
those devoted and able American officers whom he had tried 
alike in success and in defeat, to push ahead of them for- 
eigners who, he feared, joined the American army only for 
their own selfish aims and desires. 

" These men," he said, " have no attachment nor ties to 
the country further than interest binds them ; they have 
no influence, and are ignorant of the language they are to 
receive and give orders in ; consequently, great trouble or 
much confusion must follow. But this is not the worst ; 
they have not the smallest chance to recruit others, and our 
officers think it exceedingly hard, after they have toiled in 
this service and probably have sustained many losses, to 
have strangers put over them, whose merit perhaps is not 
equal to their own, but whose effrontery will take no denial." 

Feeling thus, you see, Washington was not especially 
anxious for the services of a young French nobleman who 
was scarcely more than a boy, who had run away from home 
to join the American army which he could neither benefit by 
his influence nor increase by recruiting men ; who had been 
forced to borrow money to join the army, and had brought with 
him from France (for the cargo of the "Victory" had ])cen 
seized and sold by the captain) only a number of undesired 
French officers who clamored for rank and pay and had 
to be returned to their homes by the Congress at its own 
unnecessary expense. 



HOW HE WON THE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF. I 13 

Still, Washington did admire pluck and persistence ; and 
when he learned how Lafayette had persisted in his plans, 
demanding finally to be allowed to serve as an unpaid volun- 
teer, his interest in the young man was awakened. Perhaps 
when he learned of Lafayette's refusal to receive pay for his 
services, he saw in the young Frenchman's character the 
true gold of sincerity and principle ; for, you know, Washing- 
ton's one stipulation when he accepted the position of com- 
mander-in-chief was that he should be permitted to serve 
without salary ; and his final account of expenses, presented 
at the close of the war, furnished, so says Irving, " many 
noble and impressive lessons taught by his character and 
example." 

You can see, therefore, that, in spite of his objection to 
foreign officers, Washington recognized in Lafayette an ex- 
ceptional and worthy young man, who was ready to back up 
his convictions by his actions ; when, therefore, he learned 
that the young Frenchman was to be at the dinner in Phila- 
delphia, he felt a curiosity to meet him. 

As for Lafayette, his eyes were anxiously open for the 
first sight of the American commander ; his desire was soon 
gratified, and the meeting proved to be, indeed, almost a case 
of " love at first sight." 

" Although General Washington was surrounded by 
officers and private citizens," the marquis wrote afterwards 
in his memoirs, " the majesty of his countenance and of his 
figure made it impossible not to recognize him ; he was 



114 



MOtV HE WON THE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF. 



especially distinguished also by the affability of his manners 
and the dignity with which he addressed those about him." 

Lafayette was duly presented to the commander-in-chief 
by one of his new friends of the Congress, with a flattering- 
introduction as " the young French nobleman who had given 

up everything to serve 
the American cause." 
The great man gave 
the French lad a cor- 
dial hand-clasp, and, 
looking straight into 
the young fellow's 
honest and expressive 
eyes, seems to have 
read the desire, sin- 
cerity, and integrity 
that lived in the young 
Frenchman's soul. 

Washington must 
have studied him, too, 
in his quiet, searching 
way For, after the dinner, he took Lafayette aside and 
in kind and appreciative words told the young man how 
highly he regarded his spirit and actions. 

"You have made the greatest sacrifices for our cause, my 
dear marquis," he said ; " your zeal and generosity interest me 
deeply, and I shall do my part toward making you one of us. 




LAFAYETTE MEETS WASHIXGTON. 
" The grcrt „m„ ffnve the Freeh lad ,x cerdial hand-clasf.' 



HOW HE WON THE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF. I 15 

I shall be greatly pleased to have you join my staff as a 
volunteer aid, and beg you to make my headquarters your 
home, until events place you elsewhere. I beg you to con- 
sider yourself at all times as one of my military family, and 
I shall be pleased to welcome you at the camp as speedily as 
you think proper. Of course, you will understand, my dear 
marquis, that I cannot promise you the luxuries of a court," 
— and Washington smiled as he thought of the meagrely 
supplied and poorly conditioned camp of the American army 
at Schuylkill Falls, — " but," he added, with another of his 
kindly smiles, " as you have now become an American 
soldier, you will doubtless accommodate yourself to the fare 
of an American army, and submit with a good grace to its 
customs, manners, and privations." 

It needed not Lafayette's halting and broken English 
speech to put into words his happiness at this gracious 
reception and his immediate affection for the American 
commander. His eyes, his whole face, usually so quiet and 
unmoved, displayed his feeling, and told the story of his 
pleasure. And when, next day, Washington invited the 
young Frenchman to accompany him on a visit of inspec- 
tion of the fortifications which were relied upon to defend 
Philadelphia against the anticipated approach of the British 
fleet, the regard on both sides became mutual. Wash- 
ington had shown his most kindly and gracious side to 
the young stranger from France, and had entirely captivated 
him ; while Lafayette, by his modesty, interest, enthusiasm, 



Il6 HOW HE WON THE COMMANDER- IN- CHIEF. 

and sincerity, had quite won the affection of the commander- 
in-chief. Upon that last day of July, in the year 1777, was 
begun another of the world's beautiful and historic friend- 
ships, which continued steadfast and unbroken until the 
death of the great American changed the noble Frenchman's 
friendship into reverence and devotion. 

The American army, early in August, 1777, began its 
march from the vicinity of Philadelphia to the eastward to 
cut off any British move about New York ; but on the news 
that the British fleet was hovering off the Delaware coast, 
Washington, alert but uncertain just what his opponent 
intended to do, suddenly halted in his march to the eastward 
and went into camp along one of the few highways of that 
day, known as the old York Road, near to the present village 
of Hartsville in Buck's County, Pennsylvania. 

It was here that, on the twenty-first of August, 1777, 
Lafayette joined the American army. Washington expected 
his arrival, for the young marquis had sent on his servant 
and his horses in advance ; but the commander-in-chief was 
not a little perplexed just how he was to arrange with this 
boy major-general who was major-general only in name, be- 
cause of his appointment by Congress without occupation or 
command. 

General Washington was a very particular man, and 
what is called " methodical " in all his plans and actions. 
He liked the young marquis personally and, as we have 
seen, was strongly attached to him; but, with the com- 



HOW HE WON THE COMMANDER- IN- CHIEE. 



117 



mander-in-chief, " business was business," and just what 
Lafayette's " business " really was he did not know. 

"As I understand the Marquis de Lafayette," he wrote 
to Benjamin Harrison, member of Congress, signer of the 




WHERE LAFAYETTE JOINED THE ARMY. 

On the banks of Neshatniny Creek, near Hartsvilte, Pennsylvania. ' 

Declaration of Independence, father and great-grandfather 
of two future Presidents of the United States, " it is certain 
that he does not conceive that his commission is merely hon- 
orary, but is given with a view to command a division of this 
army. It is true he has said that he is young and inexpe- 
rienced ; but at the same time he has always accompanied it 



Il8 HOW HE WON THE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF. 

with a hint that, so soon as I shall think him fit for the com- 
mand of a division, he shall be ready to enter upon his duties, 
and in the meantime has offered his services for a smaller 
command. What the designs of Congress respecting this 
gentleman were, and what line of conduct I am to pursue to 
comply with their design and his expectations, I know not 
and beg to be instructed. . . . Let me beseech you, my good 
sir, to give me the sentiments of Congress on this matter, 
that I may endeavor, as far as it is in my power, to comply 
with them." 

To this query Mr. Harrison replied that Lafayette's 
appointment was merely an honorary one, and that General 
Washington was to act as he thought best. 

Washington greeted the young man cordially and frankly, 
and, knowing the almost destitute condition in which the 
American army really was, he said to the newcomer, as if 
apologizing for the unmilitary appearance of the soldiers of 
liberty, " It is somewhat embarrassing to us, sir, to show 
ourselves to an officer who has just come from the army of 
France." 

Others of the foreign soldiers who had come to America 
to seek service and command were very critical and superior 
in their attitude, and would have replied to such a remark in 
a patronizing or self-glorifying way. But Lafayette was 
not of this character. 

" I am here, your Excellency, to learn and not to teach," 
he replied, modestly. 



II 



HO IV HE JVON THE COMMANDER- IN- CH/EE. 



119 



This wise young Frenchman could always be relied upon 
to say just the right thing. It was one of the traits of his 
whole career, and in this instance it won for him the admira- 
tion, respect, and appreciation of the American general. Wash- 
ington felt that here was a young fellow whom it would pay 
to cultivate, and at once he invited him to attend, as a major- 
general in the American service, a council of war at head- 
quarters, to which the commander had just summoned his 
general officers. So, you see, part of what he had prophesied 
to his wife did really come true, at once. 

The council decided that if the British were aiming to 
invade the Carolinas it was useless to follow them to the 
South, but that the army might better occupy the valley of 
the Hudson and perhaps recapture New York. But, just 
then, word came that the British fleet was in Chesapeake 
Bay and, at once. General Washington decided to move his 
army to the south of Philadelphia and make a stand for the 
defence of that threatened city. 

The American army was indeed a vastly different body 
of men from the gorgeous grenadiers of France, and from 
those Musketeers of the King in which Lafayette had held 
a command. As the young French soldier first saw our 
patriot army it comprised, so he said, " about eleven thou- 
sand men, rather poorly armed and much worse clad, who 
presented a singular appearance. In the midst of a great 
variety of clothing, sometimes even of nakedness, the best 
garments were a sort of hunting shirts, loose jackets made 



I20 HOW HE WON THE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF. 

of linen. ... In spite of their disadvantages, however, they 
were fine soldiers, led by zealous officers. Bravery took the 
place with them of science, and every day improved their 
experience and discipline." 

In the march through Philadelphia, for which the ragged 
army " spruced up " as much as possible, and, with sprigs 
of green in their hats, stepped off to the music of the fife 
and drum, they presented, so the marquis declared, " a 
creditable appearance." Lafayette rode by the side of Wash- 
ington and really begun to feel that he was to see service at 
last. 

His " service " came speedily. Landing at the head of 
eighteen thousand veteran British and Hessian troops near 
what is now Elkton in Maryland, General Howe, with Lord 
Cornwallis, and General Knyphausen the Hessian, advanced 
at once upon Phibidelphia. To oppose his march, Washing- 
ton with his ^^ prepared army took up a position on the 
ninth of September at Chadd's Ford on the Brandywine, a 
forked and shallow stream, hardly more than a creek, which 
winds in and out through sloping green fields, in a pleasant 
but then heavily wooded farming country — hills on the right 
bank, meadows on the left. 

Misled by confusing reports and by the approach of the 
British troops in two encircling columns, Washington was 
forced to divide his numbers, and therefore fought at great 
disadvantage. But though the American advance was beaten 
back at the lower ford, and the right wing was only saved 



HOW HE WON THE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF. 



121 



from panic by Washington's personal presence and will, the 
Battle of Brandywine was not the disastrous rout that Howe 
had planned it to be ; for the Americans made a stubborn 
resistance, and at last, but only when 
darkness came, fell back in good order 
to Chester. 

Two years ago I drove over that 
battle-field, now a peaceful and pros- 
perous farming section, rich in Revo- 
lutionary memories. And there, on 
the ridge above the little village of 
Chadd's Ford, not far from the plain 
old Quaker church known as Birming- 
ham meeting-house, I came upon a 
modest little monument of terra-cotta, 
erected, so the inscription told me, 
" by the citizens and school children of 
Chester County," because, " on the 
rising ground a short distance south 
of this spot, Lafayette was wounded 
at the Battle of Brandywine, Sep- 
tember 1 1, 1777." 

For there, even as the monument records, the young 
French marquis received his "baptism of fire." Riding into 
the action, upon his earnest solicitation, as a volunteer aid to 
General Sullivan he met the Hessian advance where, near the 
Birmingham meeting-house, it fell upon Sullivan's division, 




THE MONUMENT ON BRANDY- 
WINE BATTLE-FIELD. 

Erected to iittirk the s/'ot ri'here Lafay- 
ette was wounded. 



122 HOW HE WON THE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF. 

and, supported by Cornwallis's division, broke and shattered 
the American right. In the confusion and panic of this 
disaster, Lafayette threw himself from his horse, and, plung- 
ing into the panic, tried by sword and voice, example and 
command, to change the American rout into a determined 
and victorious stand. 

His valorous action checked the retreat for an instant; 
other troops came to his support, and the British advance 
was actually stayed for a moment. Then Cornwallis's bri- 
gades swept against the Americans in a resistless charge. 
Lafayette and his men could not withstand the shock of 
fresh troops and superior numbers; but the young French- 
man held his ground until the British were almost upon him, 
when he plunged into the woods to the south of the road, 
unconscious of the fact, in the excitement of the battle, that 
he had been wounded in the leg. They will show you that 
very spot in the woods at Chadd's Ford, to-day. 

Even then he would not desert his column until night 
fell, and when, by Washington's supreme exertions, the 
outnumbered Americans had fallen back in good order to 
Chester. In that quaint old town on the Delaware, Lafayette 
had his wound dressed, and from there Washington, writing 
to Congress his account of the Battle of the Brandywine, 
took especial pleasure in mentioning the bravery and the 
ability of the Marquis de Lafayette. 

The young Frenchman had indeed done gallant work in 
his first battle. He had well maintained the honor of the 




LAFAYETTE AT BRANDYWINE. 



' He threw kinisel/froin his horse and, plunging into the panic, tried by sword and voice, example and command, 

to change the rout into victory.''^ 



HOW HE WON THE COMMANDER- IN- CHIEF. 125 

name of the Lafayettes as brave soldiers and daring fighters. 
His courage had sent him into the thick of the fight; his 
valor had stayed the rout, and held the victorious foe in 
check ; his discipline had brought some sort of order out of 
chaos and organized a systematic retirement toward Chester ; 
and on Chester Bridge his waning strength had flamed out 
in a last determined union of wisdom and courage as he 
there stood against the retreat and held the fugitives in 
order until Washington came up with the rear-guard and 
saw the whole retreating army safe into Chester town. Then, 
at last, Lafayette thought of himself, and had his wound 
dressed. 

In fact, like the noble young Prince Emilius of whom 
Miss Yonge has told us in her " Golden Deeds," 

" His valor shed victorious grace on all that dread retreat ; " 

his daring and excellent leadership secured for him the affec- 
tion of the rank and file of the American army ; better still, 
his conduct and ability completely won the commander-in- 
chief, who, from that time, never questioned the sincerity, 
the courage, or the soldierly qualities of this valiant young 
French enthusiast who had crossed the seas to fight for the 
liberties of America. 

" The Jionor to have mingled my blood with that of 
many other American soldiers on the heights of the Brandy- 
wine has been to me a source of pride and delight." 

These are Lafayette's own words, engraved iipon the 



126 HOW HE FOUGHT FOR LIBERrV IN AMERICA. 

modest monument erected to his memory on the field of his 
first battle, by the school-children to whom he has ever been 
a young- and dashing hero. And though that first battle 
was a defeat, it was, in reality, a victory; for while it simply 
strengthened determination in the defeated Americans, and 
made the British commander so overcautious that he be- 
came, finally, too cautious, and so lost his chance, it also, for 
Lafayette, gained the recognition of his associates and the 
affection of his followers, while, what was to him more than 
all, it won for him the respect and confidence of the great 
commander-in-chief. 



CHAPTER VII. 

HOW HE FOUGHT FOR LIBERTY IN AMERICA. 

^ I ^HE American defeat at the Battle of Brandywine meant 
the loss of Philadelphia. At once Congress fled from 
the threatened city and reassembled at York, one hundred 
miles to the west. 

Lafayette, who had been taken with the wounded to 
Philadelphia, was sent up the Delaware River to Bristol, and 
from that town, Henry Laurens, that firm old patriot \\\\o, 
succeeding John Hancock, was at that time president of 
Congress, took the wounded marquis in his own travelling 
carriage, and rode away with him to the safe and healthful 



HOW HE FOUGHT FOR LIBERTY IN AMERICA. 



127 



security of the Moravian community at Bethlehem, fifty 
miles north of Philadelphia. 

This religious community of German and Austrian Puri- 
tans had, like the pilgrims of Plymouth, built, in 1741, on 
the banks of the Lehigh River, a refuge from persecution ; 
and in this quiet community life, where all lived like one 
great family of brothers and sisters, Lafayette was nursed 
back to health and strength. The only thing that delayed 
his speedy recovery was his anxiety to get back to the army. 
He reached the Old Sun Inn of Bethlehem on Sunday, the 
twenty-first of September; he left the community, healed, 
but with a wound which always affected his walk, on the 
eighteenth of October. But if his leg was disabled his mind 
was not ; for he spent much of his time in planning what 
he would do when he was well, and dreaming of invasions 
and conquests which he would lead, with the help of France 
and for the benefit of America, into the East Indian and 
West Indian possessions of England. 

Of course he wrote often to his wife, making light of 
" what I pompously call my wound," — so he spoke of it to 
her. 

" Be entirely free from anxiety as to my wound," one of 
his letters said, reassuringly ; " for all the doctors in America 
are aroused in my behalf. I have a friend who has spoken 
for me in a way to ensure my being well taken care of; and 
that is General Washington. That estimable man, whose 
talents and whose virtues I admired before, whom I venerate 



128 



HO IV HE FOUGHT FOR LIBERTY IN AMERICA. 



the more now as I learn to know him, has been kind enough 
to me to become my intimate friend. His tender interest in 




THE OLD SUN INN OF BETHLEHEM. 

Where the wointded Lafayette 7i'as taken after the Battle of Bratidyzvitte. As it looks to-day. 



me quickly won my heart. . . . When he sent his surgeon- 
in-chief to me, he directed him to care for me as I were his 



HOW HE FOUGHT FOR LIBERTY IN AMERICA. 



129 



son, because he loved me so much ; and having learned that 
I wanted to join the army too soon again, he wrote me a 
letter full of tenderness in which he admonished me to wait 
until I should be entirely well." 

The man who could display such a " tender interest " in 
a wounded young foreigner was just then having a hard 
time of it, what with the British, the foreign officers, and his 
own envious and critical countrymen. The British he 
could fight openly; and he did so, profiting by the defeats 
he suffered even as by the victories he won. But the 
grumblings and bickerings of the foreign officers, joined 
to the jealousies and plotting of envious and ambitious 
Americans, well-nigh ground that grand soul to despair, 
so wearing, so annoying, and so underhanded were 
they all. 

" These people," wrote Baron de Kalb of the French 
officers in the army, " think of nothing but their incessant 
intrigues and backbitings. They hate each other like the 
bitterest enemies, and endeavor to injure each other when- 
ever an opportunity offers. Lafayette is the sole exception. 
. . . Lafayette is much liked and is on the best of terms with 
Washington." 

Lafayette himself, generous and kindly spirited though 
he was, made the same complaint. " All foreigners now 
employed here," he wrote, " are discontented and complaining. 
They are filled with hatred toward others and they are hated 
themselves. They cannot understand why I, of all the 



130 B^OJF HE FOUGHT FOR LIBERTY IN AMERICA. 

foreig'ners in America, should be well treated, whilst I do not 
understand why they should be disliked." 

All this foreign place-hunting and jealousy annoyed 
Washington exceedingly and made him all the better satis- 
fied with Lafayette, of whom he wrote to Congress, " his 
conduct stands in a favorable point of view. He is sensible, 
discreet in his manners, has made great proficiency in our 
language, and from the disposition he discovered at the 
Battle of Brandywine, possesses a large share of bravery 
and military ardor." 

This bravery and military ardor the young Frenchman 
was to have renewed opportunities to display. In the last 
week of October, 1777, he rejoined Washington at head- 
quarters at Methacton Hill, near the Schuylkill River. On 
the twenty-fifth of November, while accompanying General 
Greene as a volunteer to test the strength of the British 
advance from Philadelphia, he disclosed the British position 
near the town of Gloucester, and with a force of but three 
hundred and fifty men attacked and routed the Hessian 
advance with such spirit that Cornwallis supposed himself 
assailed by Greene's entire division, and with his five thou- 
sand men retreated in hot haste to the security of the main 
army. 

This was really the first opportunity which Lafayette had 
to show his ability in leading men and in displaying what is 
called strategy and skill in attack. General Greene was so 
delighted with the success of his young volunteer aid that 




THE BEST FOREIGN OFFICERS WHO SERVED IN THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 

The Baron Steuben, of Prussia 



Inspector-Getieral. 

The Count Fulaski, of Poland, 

Brigadier-General of Cavalry. 



The Baron DeKalb, of Alsace, 
The Marquis de Lafayette, of France, Major-General. 

Maior- General. Thaddeus Kosciusko, of Poland, 

Brigadier-General and Chief of Engineers. 



I/O IF HE FOUGHT FOR LIBERTY IN AMERICA. 1 33 

he wrote General Washington an account of the action, and 
added, " The marquis is charmed with the spirited behavior of 
the militia and rifle corps. They drove the enemy above a 
mile and kept the ground until dark. . . . The marquis is 
determined to be in the way of danger." 

This, you see, was quite a departure from the words the 
young Frenchman had written his wife, before he landed 
on American soil. A " major-general," indeed, could be in 
real danger, as he had again and again discovered. 

The affair at Gloucester was additional proof of the valor 
and wisdom of the young volunteer as a leader of American 
troops, and Washington was so strengthened and pleased by 
it that he at once wrote Congress asking that Lafayette be 
granted his desire. This was, as you know, an appointment 
to a regular command in the American army. 

" There are now some vacant positions in the army," said 
Washington, " to one of which he may be appointed, if it 
should be the pleasure of Congress. I am convinced he 
possesses a large share of that military ardor that character- 
izes the nobility of his country." 

Congress acted upon Washington's recommendation at 
once, voting that " the Marquis de Lafayette be appointed 
to the command of a division in the Continental Army," 
and on the fourth of December, 1777, Lafayette, to his 
great delight and to the satisfaction of all those who 
had learned to respect and love this ardent and active 
young Frenchman, was assigned to the command of the 



134 



HO IV HE FOUGHT FOR LIBERTY IN AMERICA. 



Virginia division, — a major-general in actual and active 
command at twenty ! 

" At last," he wrote to his father-in-law, the Duke d'Ayen, 
who had tried so 
hard to keep him 
away from America, 
" I have what I have 
always wished for, 
— the command of 
a division. It is 
weak in point of 
numbers ; it is al- 
most naked, and I 
must make both 
clothes and recruits ; 
but I read, I study, 
I examine, I listen, 
I reflect, and upon 
the result of all this 
I make an effort to 
form my opinion and 

^ GENERAL NATHANAEL GREENE, OF RHODE ISLAND. 

to pUl IL miO as TIu greatest ^oldUro/ the Amerknn Revolution next to Washington. 

much common sense 

as I can, ... for I do not want to disappoint the confi- 
dence that the Americans have so kindly placed in me." 

He did not. Amid the hardships and rigors of that 
woful winter at Valley Forge, this wealthy and tenderly 




HOW HE FOUGHT FOR LIBERTY IN AMERICA. 1 35 

reared young nobleman set his own suffering men the ex- 
ample of devotion, frugality, self-denial, and courage under 
privation ; and when, in the midst of all this struggle for 
existence, that miserable combination of jealous officers, self- 
seeking foreigners, and fault-finding Congressmen, uniting in 
what is known in American history as the miserable and 
treacherous " Conway Cabal," sought to force Washington 
from the chief command and to use Lafayette as a catspaw, 
the wise and chivalrous young Frenchman divined their pur- 
pose and remained loyal and brave in support of his beloved 
commander. 

Congress, at the instigation of these conspirators, deter- 
mined upon an invasion of Canada, the command of which 
was to be given to Lafayette. This was deliberately planned 
to separate him from Washington's influence. But the mar- 
quis refused to lead except under the orders of Washington 
as commander-in-chief, and with De Kalb as his second in 
command. He so insisted upon these points that Congress 
yielded to his demands. The conspirators who hoped, by de- 
taching Lafayette from Washington, to win him to their side 
and strengthen their plans, were dismayed and cornered, and 
the conspiracy, punctured by one quick, calm, significant stab 
from Washington, fell harmless to the ground, with the chief 
plotters almost falling over each other in their haste to ask 
Washington's pardon and cry " it wasn't my fault." 

And almost the first blow given to the hateful conspiracy 
was when Lafayette was invited to York to meet the generals 



136 HOW HE FOUGHT FOR LIBERTY IN AMERICA. 

and Congressmen interested in the Canadian invasion — but, 
really, the leaders of the plot against Washington. 

At that dinner, given in his honor, Lafayette, as I have 
told you, refused to lead except as a subordinate to Wash- 
ington, and unless De Kalb, his own and Washington's 
friend, was made his right-hand man. This quite upset the 
" Cabal ; " but when, rising in his place, Lafayette lifted his 
glass and proposed a toast which all, he said, would of 
course drink with enthusiasm and love : " The health of 
George Washington, our noble commander-in-chief ! " the 
dismayed conspirators were altogether " rattled," as we say, 
and had no alternative except to drink the toast in silence 
and in shame. Thus they were convicted in their own 
assembly by this wise young Frenchman who had so skil- 
fully turned the tables upon them. 

But the invasion of Canada, being officially ordered by 
Congress, had to be attempted, even though the plots of the 
conspirators who planned it had all gone wrong. So, elated 
with the fact that one of his dreams was about to come true, 
and that the chief French-speaking possession of England 
was to be wrested from her under his direction and by his 
campaign, Lafayette set out for Albany in February, 1778, to 
take command of the army of invasion that was gathering 
there. 

The army of invasion, however, proved to be no army at 
all. The plans were all in the air, and the Board of War 
appointed by Congress (really the chief men of the Conway 



HOW HE FOUGHT FOR LIBERTY IN AMERICA. 



137 



Cabal), had done nothing at all. Lafayette was greatly 
disappointed. He tried to recruit some sort of an army. 
Twelve hundred ill-conditioned and unprepared men were all 
he could get together, and, at last, the loudly announced 
" invasion of Canada " fell through entirely, and Lafayette 
went back to Valley Forge, disappointed, disgusted, and 




LAFAYETTE AND THE CABAL. 

' The health of George IVtishingtott, our noble Cotmnarider-in-Chief ! ' he saii/." 



more firmly convinced than ever that upon George Wash- 
ington depended all the hopes of America. 

" Take away for an instant," he wrote to Washington, 
" that modest diffidence of yourself (which, pardon my free- 
dom, my dear general, is sometimes too great, and I wish 
you could know, as well as myself, what difference there is 



138 HO IV HE FOUGHT FOR LIBERTY IN AMERICA. 

between you and any other man), and you would see very 
plainly that, if you were lost for America, there is no one 
who could keep the army and the revolution for six months. 
... I am now fixed to your fate, and I shall follow it and 
sustain it as well by my sword as by all means in my power. 
You will pardon my importunity in favor of the sentiment 
which dictated it." 

" However sensibly your ardor for glory may make you 
feel this disappointment," said Washington to him, after the 
Canadian failure, " you may be assured that your character 
stands as fair as it ever did, and that no new enterprise is 
necessary to wipe off an imaginary stain." 

Congress was quick now to follow the lead of Wash- 
ington. It voted that it entertained " a high sense of the 
prudence, activity, and zeal of the Marquis de Lafayette," 
and that it was " fully persuaded nothing has, or would have 
been, wanting on his part or on the part of the officers who 
accompanied him to give the expedition the utmost possible 
effect." 

So Lafayette went back to Valley Forge, and there his 
own disappointment was soon turned to joy as the tidings 
came, early in May, 1778, that, thanks to Franklin's wise 
exertions and his own strong letters and appeals, the French 
nation had determined upon " armed interference " in the 
affairs of America, and that a " treaty of commerce and 
alliance " had been signed between the United States of 
America and the king of France. 



HOJr HE FOUGHT FOR LIBERTY IN AMERICA. 



139 



Valley Forge went wild with rejoicing, and so did Lafay- 
ette. Washington announced a holiday and held a grand 




LAFAYETTE'S HEADQUARTERS AT VALLEY FORGE. 
From a recent photograph. 

review; but, in the midst of it all, he had in contemplation 
a sudden and vigorous movement to delay or defeat the 



140 HO IV HE FOUGHT FOR LIBERTY IN AMERICA. 

operations which he felt certain the British commander 
would put on foot. 

He was quite correct in this. For the British, fearing 
French as well as American attack, speedily decided to give 
up Philadelphia and fall back upon New York, which they 
would make the centre of their power in America. 

Washington was certain of this almost as soon as it was 
determined upon. So, to keep a check upon the movements 
of the British army, he sent a strong force under the com- 
mand of Lafayette to get as near to the British lines as 
possible in order to watch, disturb, and annoy the enemy. 

Lafayette, proud of the confidence thus placed in him by 
Washington, led his command of two thousand picked men 
from the camp at Valley Forge to a dry ridge overlooking 
the Schuylkill. This was called Barren Hill. It was three 
miles to the east of the present town of Conshohocken and 
about nine miles from Philadelphia. It was a well-chosen 
point, for it overlooked both the river and the Philadelphia 
highway, and Lafayette proceeded to protect and fortify his 
camp. 

But the British generals, when told of this encampment 
of Lafayette, felt sure that they now had this " hot-headed 
French boy " in their grasp ; and, knowing that Lafayette's 
capture would have great weight in Europe, they prepared to 
first defeat and then capture him. Indeed, Generals Howe 
and Clinton were so certain of success that they issued invi- 
tations to their especial friends in Philadelphia to dine with 



IfOJ'V HE FOUGHT FOR LIBERTY IN AMERICA. I 41 

them at headquarters next day " to meet Monsieur the 
Marquis de Lafayette." 

So, on the morning of the twentieth of May, 1778, eight 
thousand British and Hessian troops with fifteen pieces of 
artillery marched out of Philadelphia by one road to take 
Lafayette in the rear; by another road, a column of 
grenadiers and cavalry marched to attack his right, while 
a third column, led by Generals Howe and Clinton in person, 
with the British admiral. Lord Howe, as a volunteer "just 
to enjoy the sport," went by a third route to attack the mar- 
quis in front. The young Marquis de Lafayette was es- 
teemed quite an important person, you see, when the flower 
of the British army, led by its commanding general, came 
stealing out to trap him. 

Lafayette, it must be confessed, came very nearly being 
thus entrapped. For he was actually almost surrounded by 
the three divisions of the British army before he awoke to the 
real danger of his position. He expected attack along one 
line; he hardly counted upon the honor of making a three- 
cornered fight against an overwhelming force. 

In fact, fighting was not to be thought of. This was a 
case for strategy. So, strategy he tried. Along the road 
over which the main British column was marching, Lafayette 
threw out what were called " false heads " of columns, — that 
is, a few men, marching from the woods at different points as 
if the whole army were advancing to battle. The British 
general saw these " false heads " and, supposing them to be 



142 J/OJF HE FOUGHT FOR LIBERTY IN AMERICA. 

real ones, halted to form his battle line, while Lafayette, who 
had placed the bulk of his troops upon the only piece of unoc- 
cupied road left, under the hill and quite out of the enemy's 
sight, hurried them off to Valley Forge in quick order, him- 
self bringing up in the rear. He forded the Schuylkill and 
reached the camp without the loss of a man, while the three 
British columns marching up the hill came face to face with 
their own red-coated brothers. So they marched down again 
in mortification and disgust. The " French boy" had shrewdly 
given them the slip, and the dinner engagement " to meet 
Monsieur the Marquis de Lafayette " was declared off ! 

Washington was delighted. He complimented Lafayette 
on his victory — for a w^ell-conducted retreat is often a bril- 
liant victory — and advised Congress of the young French- 
man's " timely and handsome retreat in great order." 

Soon after this affair, on the eighteenth of June, 1778, the 
British evacuated Philadelphia, and, stringing across New 
Jersey, bag and baggage, retreated to New York. Washing- 
ton determined to stop, annoy, or attack and defeat them at 
once. But certain of his generals objected to this as Clin- 
ton's army was so much larger than his own. One general 
especially vigorously opposed his commander's plan. This 
was General Charles Lee, the most persistent of all the 
foreign adventurers, who by his exertions and bravado and 
his record of European service had raised himself to the 
second in command, or next in rank to Washington. 

There is now no doubt that Charles Lee, preyed upon by 



HO IV HE FOUGHT FOR LIBERTY IN AMERICA. 143 

jealousy, ambition, and disappointment at the failure of the 
Conway Cabal, had determined to break his oath of alle- 
giance to America and play into the hands of the British. 
He obstructed every move of Washington's ; he objected to 
every suggestion and plan of action, and did all in his power 
to restrain the American army from attacking the British on 
its way to New York. 

In the Council of War at Hopewell, in New Jersey, 
Lafayette made a bold and stirring plea for immediate and 
aggressive action. But Lee's experience as a soldier and his 
cleverly constructed argument partly carried the council and 
it was decided, against Lafayette's protest and Washington's 
judgment, to strengthen the American line, but not to bring 
on a general engagement. 

This w^as precisely the end for which Lee was working; 
so, when Clinton's advance threatened one of the American 
detachments, and Lee, as second in command, was ordered to 
check this with the American advance, he declined to do it 
as against the advice of the Council of War. But Washing- 
ton knew that his own judgment was best, and, indeed, the 
most of his advisers had come to his views. As Lee declined 
the leadership, the appointment was given to Lafayette, who 
felt that the chance had come to prove his own ability and 
generalship. 

Lafayette rode enthusiastically forward leading the ad- 
vance. But when Lee saw that, in spite of his plans, the 
active movement was to be made and that the honors would 



144 HOW HE FOUGHT FOR LIBERTY IN AMERICA. 

fall to Lafayette, whom he disliked because Washington 
loved him, at once he changed his mind and appealed to 
Washington to replace him in the command, as was his 
right as second in rank. His motive may have been to bring 
about an American defeat. At any rate he went at once to 
Lafayette and begged him to retire in his favor. 

" I place my fortune and my honor in your hands," he 
said to the young Frenchman ; " you are too generous to 
destroy both the one and the other." 

It was indeed an appeal to Lafayette's generosity which 
the chivalrous young marquis could not refuse. So, although 
it was a grievous disappointment to him, he gave back the 
command to Lee, while Washington arranged a compromise 
by which Lee should command and Lafayette lead the 
advance. 

Washington ordered an immediate attack upon the 
British at Monmouth Court House, and at half-past five 
on the morning of the twenty-eighth of July, 1778, the battle 
of Monmouth began. Its result was a sorry ending to a 
skilfully conceived plan, and one which, had Washington 
been obeyed and had Lafayette kept the command, would 
have proved a brilliant victory. But Lee deliberately 
delayed ; he held back his advance, snarled up his officers by 
contradictory orders, and at last ordered a disgraceful retreat 
that was only saved from utter rout by Washington's prompt 
and vigorous action, as, superb in his wrath, he met the 
treacherous Lee among the retreating troops. Straightway 



HOW HE FOUGHT FOR LIBERTY IN AMERICA. 1 45 

he expressed his opinion of the jealous adventurer in lan- 
guage as forcible as it was merited ; then, assuming the 
command himself, he faced the retreating army to the right 
about, checked the British advance and assault, plucked the 
day from disgrace, and manoeuvred his army out of disaster, 
and once again saved the American cause. 

Lafayette, you may be sure, fretted and chafed under 
Lee's singular and criminal action. Unselfishly giving up 
his command, he was really but a volunteer in the fight ; but 
again and again, whenever the opportunity offered, he dashed 
into action — now leading the cavalry in a desperate charge," 
now urging Lee to action, now stemming the tide of unneces- 
sary and headlong retreat, and, finally, supporting Washing- 
ton's rapid change of front by rallying the re-formed second 
line upon a hill-slope, facing the enemy where a charge and 
battery support effectually stopped and drove back the 
British advance. 

Then night came on. Lafayette, wrapped in his cloak, 
slept beside Washington at the foot of a tree, and woke to 
find that the British army, like the Arabs, had " silently 
stolen away " in the night. The honors of war at Monmouth, 
after all, were with Washington, the masterly general, and 
with Lafayette, his loyal aid. 

Thanks to Lee's treachery, the British escaped to New 
York ; but there they found fresh trouble. For, as the first 
fruits of the treaty of alliance with France, a French fleet of 

' See Frontispiece. 



146 



HOW HE FOUGHT FOR LIBERTY IN AMERICA. 



fourteen frigates and twelve battle-ships sailed into American 
waters, located the English fleet in New York harbor, and 
threatened to engage and destroy it. 

But without sufficient or reliable pilotage the entrance 
to New York harbor was not safe for the French admiral's 
big battle-ships ; so, after communicating with Washington, 
and Lafayette, the admiral sailed away to attack the British 




NEW YORK CITY AND HARIiOR. 
From ajt old cut taken about the time of the Rei'ohition. 



force stationed at Newport in Rhode Island, while Lafayette 
at the head of two thousand men marched overland from the 
Hudson to Providence to support the French naval attack. 

The New England militia hastened to join the Conti- 
nental troops, and a formidable force was thus collected for 
the assault ; but, as was so often the case in the American 
Revolution, the rival claims of differing nationalities, the 
arrogance of the French allies, and the ever-existing Anglo- 



HOW HE FOUGHT FOR LIBERTY IN AMERICA. 147 

Saxon hostility to those of other speech and blood, upset all 
Washington's plans and overthrew all Lafayette's desires. 
The French officers were jealous of their own leader, the 
Count d'Estaing, a relative of Lafayette, because he, a land 
ofificer, had been made the chief of a naval expedition ; a 
storm disabled and endangered the fleet, and, greatly to 
Lafayette's disappointment, the fleet sailed away to Boston 
for repairs without striking a blow, and the Americans found 
that they did not like their French allies as much as they 
thought they did. 

Lafayette galloped to Boston, and tried hard to induce 
his kinsman to assist the American army. The Count 
d'Estaing at last promised to land his sailors and march 
them across to Newport ; but before he could do this the 
British were heavily reinforced, and Lafayette had to gallop 
back to protect his own rear guard, and lead the now imper- 
illed American army out of danger. This he did in his custo- 
mary vigorous and strategical manner. 

Worn out by these misunderstandings ; disappointed and 
distressed at the overthrow of his plans ; homesick and sad 
over his home news of the death of his little girl; convinced 
by the knowledge that England had declared war against 
France that his duty to his king was even greater than his 
duty to the American Congress, and that affairs in France 
demanded his presence there, Lafayette at last decided to ask 
for a leave of absence and go home to France on a furlough. 

His request was seconded by Washington, who, while he 



148 



HOW HE FOUGHT FOR LIBERTY IN AMERICA. 



disliked to have the young man leave him, still felt that his 
presence in France might be of advantage. Congress granted 
the furlough, with its official thanks and the gift of " an 
elegant sword ; " ordered its best war-ship, the frigate " Alli- 




" LAFAVETTE BADE GOOD-BVE TO WASHINGTON." 

ance," to convey the marquis to France, and in every way 
showed its appreciation of his services and his self-sacrifice. 
So, in October, 177S, Lafayette bade good-bye to Wash- 
ington and rode away from the camp, to go on board the 
" Alliance " at Boston, homeward bound at last. 



HOW ''2 HAT BOY" SAJiVjEB 2 HE EARL. 149 



CHAPTER VIII. 

HOW " THAT BOY " SERVED THE EARL. 

AS Lafayette, homeward bound, rode into the old town of 
Fishkill-on-the-Hudson on a chilly and rainy October 
day, the fever was in his bones. He was a French moun- 
taineer, brought up in the rugged Auvergne country and 
seasoned by continued exposure and privation ; but malaria 
unnerves even mountaineers, and " chills and fever " can 
conquer the stoutest campaigners. 

The people had cheered him and made a hero of him all 
the way from Philadelphia to the camp on the Hudson, and 
he had kept up through all the receptions and festivities, as 
every hero must. But at Fishkill he gave up at last. The 
fever conquered the hero, and for days he lay so low that his 
death was expected and even reported. 

Washington was deeply grieved. From his camp, eight 
miles away, he rode daily to Lafayette's door to inquire after 
his condition, fearing to ask to see his young friend lest his 
presence should excite the weakened invalid. It is a touching 
instance of real friendship, and we can almost see the noble- 
hearted American leader, distressed over his friend's serious 
condition, riding away from the door at Fishkill with bowed 



I50 



HOW ''THAT BOV" SERVED THE EARL. 



head and sorrowing face, fearing that the marquis was indeed 
to sacrifice his bright and valuable young life for the land he 
had fought to free. 

Lafayette, too, was certain he was going to die ; and his 




WHERE LAFAYETTE FOUGHT DEATH. 
The Old Manor-house at Fishkill-on-ihe-Hudson. 



only prayer was that he might live long enough to see or 
hear from his dear ones once more — or, for just three 
months more of life, if, in that time, he might hear of the 
success of America. 

He was to live much longer than the coveted three 



HOW ''THAT BOY" SERVED THE EARL. 151 

months. Washington's own physician took him in charge 
and "pulled him through" all right. The fever spent itself; 
recovery came. Washington cared for him in his convales- 
cence like a father, parted from him tenderly, sent him on to 
Boston in charge of his own physician, and wrote him as a 
good-bye word, " I am persuaded, my dear marquis, that there 
is no need of fresh proofs to convince you either of my affec- 
tion for you personally or of the high opinion I entertain of 
your military talents and merit." 

The war-ship was waiting for him at Boston, and, with a 
crew hastily gathered upon the young man's arrival by filling 
it out to the required number with British deserters and 
prisoners, it finally sailed away on the eleventh of January, 
1779. 

And the last thing Lafayette did was to add a third post- 
script to a final letter to Washington. " The sails are just 
going to be hoisted, my dear general," he wrote, " and I have 
but time to take my last leave of you. . . . Farewell. I hope 
your French friend will ever be dear to you ; I hope I shall 
soon see you again, and tell you myself with what emotion I 
now leave the coast you inhabit and with what affection and 
respect I am forever, my dear general, your respectful and 
sincere friend, Lafayette." 

The "Alliance" was just a month making its voyage to 
France. It came very near to not getting to France at all ; 
for the British deserters and prisoners who had filled out the 
crew conspired to seize the vessel, kill the officers and pas- 



152 HOW ''THAT BOY" SERVED THE EARL. 

sengers, and, taking the " Alliance " into an English port, sell 
her as a rebel prize, and line their pockets with the proceeds. 

The plot came dangerously near to success. Instead of 
carrying out their intentions on the morning of the day set 
for the meeting, the conspirators put it off until afternoon. 
During the day one of their number " told on " his associates. 
The French and American sailors, who had no part in the 
plot, backed up Lafayette and the ship's officers ; the thirty- 
three mutineers were cornered, captured, and clapped into 
irons, and the " Alliance," saved from disaster, sailed, a week 
later, into the French harbor of Brest. 

All France turned out to welcome this plucky young 
Frenchman who, braving the king's commands and the wrath 
of his own family, had run away to America with a ship-load 
of supplies to fight for the cause of liberty, and had been 
returned to his native land in a war-ship of the new American 
republic. 

They hailed him as hero and paragon ; they overwhelmed 
him with attentions and swarmed about him at receptions 
and festivities. The queen stopped him in the palace gar- 
dens to talk with him ; the king ordered him into arrest as a 
deserter — but his prison was his father-in-law's grand house 
at Paris, his jailer was his wife ! — and then publicly forgave 
and congratulated " the deserter ; " ministers and nobles called 
upon him to consult him about America and the opportu- 
nities it afforded for revenge on England, and Lafayette, like 
all heroes, enjoyed and was perhaps a bit wearied by these 



ffOW ''THAT BOY" SERVED THE EARL. 



153 



attentions. " I had the honor," he says, " of being consulted 
by all the ministers and, what was a great deal better, of 
being kissed by all the women." The experiences of heroes 
are about the same, you see, in all ages, from Horatius at the 





LAFAYETTE "HOME AGAIN." 

'* The queen stopped him in the palace gardens to talk with hiin?^ 

Bridge to Hobson from the " Merrimac " — and Lafayette 
was no exception. 

His father-in-law, the Duke d'Ayen, forgave and wel- 
comed him ; his wife, Adrienne, loyal to him in all his high 
plans and desires, was overjoyed to see him ; the actors in 
the theatres put extra words in their parts to honor Lafay- 
ette and " bring down the house ; " and this young man of 



154 HO IV ''THAT BOY" SERVED THE EARL. 

twenty-one would surely have " had his head turned " if that 
head had not been such a very level one. 

Instead, he steered all this hero-worship into one channel 
— help for America. " In the midst of the whirl of excite- 
ment by which I was carried along," he said, " I never lost 
sight of the revolution, the success of which still seemed 
to me to be extremely uncertain ; accustomed as I was to 
seeing great purposes accomplished with slender means, 
I used to say to myself that the cost of a single fete would 
have equipped the army of the United States, and in order 
to provide clothes for them I would gladly have stripped the 
palace at Versailles." 

He did something more than wish ; he accomplished. He 
went to work practically. With the great Doctor Franklin 
and the famous American sea-captain, John Paul Jones, he 
planned an expedition in which he should lead the land 
forces and Paul Jones should command the war-ships ; the 
expedition, under the American flag, was to attack and cap- 
ture English ports and English cities. Then a still greater 
plan was considered ; this was the union of France and 
Spain for an assault on England in behalf of the colonies. 
John Paul Jones sailed away in the " Bon Homme Richard " 
and had his famous sea-fight with the " Serapis," while this 
plan was maturing ; but Spain was dilatory and behindhand, 
as she has always been, and the invasion of England fell 
through. 

So Lafayette joined the French army again and was 



HOW ''THAI' BOY" SERVED THE EARL. 



155 



made colonel of the King's Dragoons ; but inaction did not 

satisfy him when he had the cause of America so much 

at heart, and he set about urging the preparation of a big 

French expedition of 

soldiers and sailors for 

the immediate help of 

America. 

King Louis XVI. 
did not love America ; 
Oueen Marie Antoi- 
nette did not favor the 
cause of liberty. For 
Bourbon kings and 
Austrian princesses 
did not care to foster 
the spirit of inde- 
pendence. But they 
had been carried into 
the treaty of alliance 
by the French people, 
who hated England 




LAFAYETTE'S "NAVAL AID." 



Tp/^ If^VPrl 1"hp iHp^ of John Pauljoiies, the fatttous captain with whovi La/ayette arranged 

a Joint attack on England. 

liberty, and now, 

backed by the popularity and the persistence of Lafayette, 
the French people called upon their king to help the cause 
in which Lafayette had won so glorious a renown. 

His persistency at last carried the day. The court of 



156 HOW ^^THAT BOY" SERVED THE EARL. 

France decided to send an army to the assistance of Amer- 
ica, and Count de Rochambeau, lieutenant-general in the 
army of the king, was despatched with a fleet of war-ships 
and transports and six thousand picked soldiers of France 
to the help of the Americans. 

Lafayette was sent on in advance to carry the good news 
to Washington and to Congress, and especially to let Wash- 
ington know that there could be no more of the jealousies 
and rivalries that had ruined the success of the first French 
expedition. For, at Lafayette's earnest request, it was 
ordered that the French troops, while in America, should be 
subject to the orders of General Washington ; that they 
should always yield the honors of advance and leadership to 
the American army in action, and that American officers should 
be recognized as having equal rank with French officers. 

This arrangement really did much toward the final tri- 
umph of the American Revolution ; for harmony is the 
surest road to success ; and, thanks to Lafayette, harmony 
was established and maintained between the allied armies of 
France and America. 

So Lafayette came to America the second time. Not 
now as a runaway and an unwelcomed recruit did he come ; 
but as a major-general in the American army and as the 
official representative of the court of France, sent to prepare 
the way for the help which the court of his king, even against 
the royal will, had, at his solicitation, sent across the sea to 
aid the cause of American liberty. 



HOW ''THAT BOY" SERVED THE EARL. 



157 



The French frigate, " Hermione," with Lafayette on board, 
ran into Boston harbor on the twenty-eighth day of April, 
1 780. And when the people of Boston knew that the French 
frigate bore " the marquis," as Lafayette was commonly 
called in America, all the town turned out to welcome him, 
and he was escorted with shouts and cheers to the stately 
mansion of Governor John Hancock on Beacon Hill. And 
this time "Mr. Hancok " did not turn him over to some one 
else as a " foreign affair ! " 

Washington soon received news of the arrival of " his 
young soldier," as Lafayette loved to style himself, and 
hastened to summon him to his side. On the tenth of 
May, 1780, Lafayette joined his beloved commander-in-chief 
at the headquarters in Morristown, and there informed Wash- 
ington privately what no one in America yet knew, of the 
coming of the military and naval expedition from the king of 
France to the aid of America. 

Washington was overjoyed at the news, especially when 
he learned that Lafayette had so arranged the alliance as to 
remove cause for jealousies and rivalries. But he knew that 
even this mighty help from France would be of no profit 
to America unless the American people prepared to do their 
share. So, while Lafayette hurried to Philadelphia to report 
to Congress, Washington set himself to the task of urging 
Congress and the country to respond, by renewed efforts and 
sacrifices, to the generous offers of France. 

Energetic measures were at once set on foot, in which 



158 ffOlV ^- THAT BOY" SERVEV THE EARL. 

both the French and American troops were to bear part. 
Lafayette's pet scheme was renewed, — the invasion of 
Canada by French soldiers under the combined flags of 
France and the United States. But Benedict Arnold, the 
traitor, was already laying his dastardly plans for his great 
and hateful crime, and, being entrusted with the details of 
the Canadian invasion, he promptly reported them to Sir 
Henry Clinton, the British commander, and again Lafayette's 
cherished scheme was upset. 

Half-clothed, half-fed, with but four thousand out of its 
six thousand soldiers fit for duty, the Continental army was 
in so desperate and deplorable a state that, as Lafayette 
declared to the president of Congress, " though I have been 
directed to furnish the French court and the French generals 
with early and minute intelligence, I confess that pride has 
stopped my pen and, notwithstanding past promises, I have 
avoided entering into any details till our army is put in a 
better and more decent situation." 

But America's sure stand-by and security in this, as 
in all other critical times, was George Washington. His 
action and his energy aroused Congress and the land to 
courage, and by the time the French ships and soldiers 
arrived, the American army had been strengthened and 
improved. 

On the tenth of July, 1780, the Count de Rochambeau, 
with the French army of assistance, arrived at Newport in 
Rhode Island, and the French commander, informing Wash- 



HOW ''THAI' BOY" SERVED THE EARL. 



159 



ington of his arrival, announced, as the king had directed 
him, " We are now, sir, under your command." 

But there was much to be done before this French alli- 
ance brought victory or even action ; campaigns moved slowly 
in those days, and 
Americans who, to-day, 
can within three months 
organize and push to 
triumph a campaign of 
assistance and deliver- 
ance in behalf of a per- 
secuted people, would 
have but little patience 
with a campaign of such 
deliberation as was that 
of the French alliance 
of 1780, when America 
was in desperate state, 
and Lafayette fretted 
over the delays that 
wasted a year in prepar- 
ation. 

On the twentieth of 
September, at Hartford in Connecticut, Washington, with 
Lafayette and Knox, met the Count de Rochambeau and 
Admiral de Terney, commanding the French fleet, and a 
plan of operations was arranged, which, however, because 




--^^- -* 



:-r '"'^.S^^^S^S^'^i 



&&^^^^^^ 




THE OLD MILL AT NEWPORT. 

Near Rochambemi's kendgltnrtcrs ; said to have been built before 
flu time of Cohtiitbus. 



l6o HO IV ''THAT BOY" SERVED THE EARL. 

of vexatious delays and disappointments, could not be put 
into effect until a new year had opened. 

One of these causes for delay was the most dramatic and 
tragic occurrence of the American Revolution ; and in this 
Lafayette, too, had part. 

Upon the very day that Washington and the marquis met 
the French commander at Hartford, Benedict Arnold and 
Major John Andre were also perfecting their plan of arrange- 
ments which, if successful, would have been as disastrous to 
America as those of Washington and Rochambeau were 
to be helpful. Lafayette was with Washington, when, on 
reaching West Point, on his return from Hartford, Arnold's 
treason was discovered ; he it was who tried to comfort and 
control Mrs. Arnold when the news of her husband's disgrace 
drove her, as Lafayette reported, " into such frightful convul- 
sions that she completely lost her reason ; " he it was who, 
with the other general officers, sat at a court-martial in the 
headquarters at Tappan " up the Hudson," and, after a fair and 
honorable trial, convicted and sentenced John Andre, adjutant 
general of the British army, as a spy, and hung him, in right- 
eous and merited punishment, upon the green hillside at 
Tappan, with which for a hundred and twenty years his sad 
story has been associated. 

" I hope he will be hung," wrote Lafayette, upon the news 
of Andre's capture ; " for he is a man of influence in the Eng- 
lish army, and his distinguished social rank will act as a 
warning to spies of less degree." 



IfOlV ^' THAT BOY" SERVED THE EARL. 



l6l 



" He was a very interesting man," wrote Lafayette, after 
Andre's death ; " he conducted himself in a manner so frank, 
so noble, and so delicate, that I cannot help feeling for him 
an infinite pity." 

And those two recorded judgments of the treason-hating, 




LAFAYETTE AND MRS. ARNOLD. 
" He tried to comfort and control her when the ttews of her husband 's disgrace nearly crazed her." 

spy-detesting, courage-loving marquis have stood as the opin- 
ion of all thinking men since the days of Andre's sorry but 
righteous fate. 

Lafayette was not yet through with Benedict Arnold. In 
1780 the British invaded, overrun, and apparently conquered 
the Southern States. The Baron de Kalb, Lafayette's fellow 



1 62 HOW ''THAT BOY" SERVED THE EARL. 

runaway and fast friend, fell in battle at Camden, in South 
Carolina, where you may to-day (as you may also at Annapo- 
lis, in Maryland) see the monument erected to his memory, 
and Cornwallis, the British commander, prepared to hold the 
Carolinas in a relentless grasp. 

To enlarge his opportunities for conquest Sir Henry 
Clinton, the British commander-in-chief, sent a British army 
to invade Virginia and connect with Cornwallis ; the British 
detachment was placed under the command of Benedict 
Arnold, now, in payment for his treason, a general in the 
British army. To meet and drive out Arnold, Washington 
at once directed General Greene to send Lafayette with 
twelve hundred Continental troops to Virginia. The French 
fleet was to support him ; but at the entrance to Chesapeake 
Bay it was met, defeated, and driven back by the British 
fleet, and Lafayette had to carry out his land operations 
unaided. 

So well did he conduct these operations that both Arnold 
the traitor and Phillips (that British general, by the way, 
who was said to have killed Lafayette's father in the Battle 
of Hastenbeck), sent to support him, were outgeneralled and 
beaten back. Lafayette manoeuvred about Richmond so 
cleverly that the British gave it up after its capture and 
brief occupation, and he led them so uncertain and unprofita- 
ble a march up and down the James that Virginia was 
unconquered still, and Cornwallis, hot with anger at the lack 
of results, determined at once to march through the Caro- 



HOW ''THAT BOY" SERVED THE EARL. 



163 



linas, where Greene was making- it most uncomfortable for 
him, and cage and capture " that boy Lafayette " among 
the hills that encircle and defend the fine old town of 
Richmond. 

Major - General 
Charles, the second 
Earl Corn wallis, after- 
ward governor - gen- 
eral of India and 
conqueror of Tippoo 
Sahib, was forty- 
three years old and 
a soldier with a pretty 
good opinion of his 
own abilities. He 
believed that he had 
an easy task to " whip 
that boy Lafayette," 
as he announced it 
to be his intention, 
and he set out with 
the greatest confi- 
dence upon what 
proved the most disastrous venture of his long and ven- 
turesome life. 

Cornwallis joined his forces with those of Arnold at 
Petersburg and, on the twenty-fourth of May, 1781, he 




lafavette's antagonist. 

' Charles, Earl Cornwallis, Cotninatider of the Briiish/orces at 
York aftd Gloucester.'^ 



164 HOW ''THAT BOV" SERVED THE EARL. 

marched out with his whole force to attack Lafayette at 
Richmond. 

At Byrd's Plantation (that fine old colonial mansion in 
whose noble rooms this English "gentleman" stabled his 
cavalry horses!) the earl wrote to his commander-in-chief, 
" The boy cannot escape me." 

" Lord Cornwallis," said Lafayette, " marches with amaz- 
ing celerity. But I have done everything I could, without 
arms or men, at least to impede him by local embarrass- 
ments." 

These " embarrassments " were so skilfully arranged that, 
spite of the noble earl's assurance, the " boy " certainly did 
escape him, and led him so vigorous a dance up and down 
that fair land that lies along the James and the York, that 
Cornwallis, like Phillips and Arnold, was fairly outmanoeu- 
vred by Lafayette and, with one desperate cry to Clinton for 
relief, fell into the trap laid for him by Lafayette ; for, cor- 
nered at Yorktown, he speedily found the door of his cage 
shut and barred by the unexpected arrival of the combined 
forces of Washington and Rochambeau. 

In the old Livingston manor-house at Dobb's Ferry on 
the Hudson — as the granite shaft there erected informs 
every passer-by — Washington and Rochambeau, on the 
fourteenth of August, 1781, met and planned the campaign 
at Yorktown ; and within and about the old capital of Wil- 
liamsburg the allied armies, by rapid marches, sat down to 
besiege the British defences at Yorktown, that old Virginia 



J/OIV ''THAT BOY" SERVED THE EARL. 



l6: 



town, now sadly gone to seed. On the twenty-sixth of Sep- 
tember the siege began. It had been quick work for those 
days of no railroads and no facilities for army transporta- 
tion, while at the entrance to the fair, broad river, below 




WHERE WASHINGTON JOINED LAFAYETTE. 
Headquarters of General ll'ashittgton at H'iltiainsbur^, in l^irginia. 



■.\-f rJ.-i 



the " heights above York," the French fleet under Count de 
Grasse blocked the way for English relief by sea. 

Lafayette had accomplished his desires. He had pro- 
tected Virginia, forced Cornwallis into a corner, held him 
there until the allied armies arrived, and permitted neither 



1 66 



HOW ''THAT BOY" SERVED THE EARL. 



impatience, anxiety, rivalry, nor the demands of the French 
admiral that he and Lafayette go in and finish up the Earl 
Cornwallis, to change his own determination that Wash- 
ington himself and no other man should command the com- 
bined French and 
American armies 
in the final strife 
at YorktOAvn. 
This noble trait 
of generous self- 
ishness in the 
cause of " his 
dear general," is 
one of the bright- 
est spots in this 
young French- 
man's character. 
He might have 
won all the hon- 
ors and finished 
up the fight ; but 
he loyally held 
back the fall of 

THE COUNT DE ROCHAMBEAU. 

the curtain until 
the central figure 
and chief actor in the great drama came upon the stage. 

The end of the play now came speedily. Steadily the 




" Commanding the auxiliary troops of His Most Christian Majesty in 
A merica.^'' 



HOW '' THAT BOY" SERVED THE EARL. 1 67 

opposing French and American entrenchments drew closer 
to the British parallels. They came, finally, within three 
hundred yards of each other ; then, on the evening of the 
fourteenth of October, Lafayette's men, led by Alexander 
Hamilton, charged the British works on the left; while the 
French grenadiers stormed the British redoubt on the right, 
and all the outer works were won. It was the last battle of 
the American Revolution ; and it was won by Lafayette's 
fighters and under his personal direction. 

The next night Cornwallis endeavored to cut his way 
out, and escape across the York River to Gloucester; but 
American watchfulness and a Virginia storm drove him 
back, and on the seventeenth of October a British drummer 
boy appeared on the ramparts and beat a parley. One 
French and one American officer met two British officers 
at Mr. Moore's farmhouse, still standing in Yorktown. 
Articles of capitulation were drawn up and accepted, and 
on the nineteenth of October, 1781, on the green plain 
beyond Yorktown, where to-day a modest little brown shaft 
of German cement marks the exact spot, the British 
troops laid down their arms in surrender, while their 
drums beat the suggestive air of " The world turned upside 
down." 

And the French commissioner who prepared the articles 
of capitulation at Mr. Moore's house was the Vicomte de 
Noailles, brother-in-law to Lafayette and one of those two 
young men whom, three years before, Lafayette had roused 



l68 HOW '^ THAT BOY" SERVED THE EARL. 

from bed in Paris with the cry, " Wake up ! wake up ! I'm 
going to America to fight for liberty ! " 

Upon the most sightly point of the green " heights above 
York " there stands to-day a splendid marble monument 
encircled with stars, ringed by thirteen joyous female figures, 
and topped by a welcoming and victorious Liberty. A land- 
mark for all that region, it overlooks alike the broad river 
and the green fields of York, a memorial erected by the 
American people to commemorate the final triumph at 
Yorktown. 

On the southern tablet you may read these words : " At 
York, on October 19, 1781, after a siege of nineteen days, by 
5,500 American and 7,000 French Troops of the Line, 3,500 
Virginia Militia under command of General Thomas Nelson 
and 36 French ships of war, Earl Cornwallis, Commander 
of the British Forces at York and Gloucester, surrendered 
his army, 7,251 officers and men, 840 seamen, 244 cannons 
and 24 standards to His Excellency George Washington, 
Commander in Chief of the Combined Forces of America 
and France, to His Excellency the Comte de Rochambeau, 
commanding the auxiliary Troops of His Most Christian 
Majesty in America, and to His Excellency the Comte 
de Grasse, commanding in chief the Naval Army of France 
in Chesapeake." 

Nothing of Lafayette in that grand and sonorous record 
of victory on the splendid surrender monument at York- 
town ! And yet it was largely because of Lafayette that 



HOW HE CAME TO AMERICA FOR THE THIRD TIME. 169 

the splendid shaft stands where it does to-day. For " the 
boy " had fooled the earl ! He had fairly outmanoeuvred 
and outgeneralled him, and, with an inferior army, had kept 
him dodging and doubling all over the fair York peninsula, 
until, cooped up in his entrenchments at Yorktown, Wash- 
ington and the end found Cornwallis at last. The " noble 
earl," who so confidently declared that " the boy cannot escape 
me," was forced to admit, as he frankly did, that the earl 
could not escape the boy and his backers ; and, at last, in 
despair he yielded up his sword in surrender, and brought 
to a close that long struggle for liberty in America to which 
" the boy " had pledged, like the signers of the immortal 
Declaration of Independence, " his life, his fortune, and his 
sacred honor." 



CHAPTER IX. 

HOW HE CAME TO AMERICA FOR THE THIRD TIME. 

" '^ I ^HE play is over, Monsieur le comte," wrote Lafayette 
to the French minister; "the fifth act has just come 
to an end. I was somewhat disturbed during the former 
acts, but my heart rejoices exceedingly at this last, and I 
have no less pleasure in congratulating you upon the happy 
ending of our campaign." 

When the curtain fell at Yorktown the players began to 
disperse. It was fully two years before the lights were put 



lyo 



NO]V HE CAME TO AMERICA FOR THE THIRD TIME. 



out and the theatre was emptied, by the final departure of the 
British from New York on that famous Evacuation Day of 
November twenty-fifth, 1783. But among the earHest to 
depart was the Marquis de Lafayette. 

It was felt, equally by Lafayette and by Congress, that 
the presence of the popular young marquis in France would 
lead to continued assistance in the way of men and money 
from the king of France in the next campaign in America. 
For, you see, although Yorktown really did end the Revolu- 
tion, no one could tell at that time whether King George 
would give up the fight or whether he would keep obstinately 
on until another British general had followed the disastrous 
examples of Gage and Howe and Clinton and Burgoyne and 
Cornwallis. 

So, with Washington's consent and the approval of Con- 
gress, it was agreed that " Major-General the Marquis de 
Lafayette have permission to go to France and that he return 
at such time as shall be most convenient to him." 

And, in the " resolve " that granted his furlough. Con- 
gress also voted that he " be informed that, on a review of his 
conduct throughout the past campaign and particularly dur- 
ing the period in which he had the! chief command in Vir- 
ginia, the many new proofs which present themselves of 
his zealous attachment to the cause he has espoused, and 
of his judgment, vigilance, gallantry, and address in its 
defence, have greatly added to the high opinion entertained 
by Congress of his merits and military talents." 



HO IV HE CAME TO AMERICA FOR THE THIRD TIME. 171 

Things had changed, you see, since he stood a suppliant 
at the door of Congress, looked upon simply as a young 
French adventurer whom it was risky to recognize and 
undesirable to employ. The plucky and determined young 
Frenchman had " proved his faith by his works " and Con- 
gress was grateful for his services, proud of his loyalty, and 
prompt to recognize and acknowledge his success. 

" I owe it to your friendship and to my affectionate regard 
for you, my dear marquis," said Washington, " not to let you 
leave this country without carrying with you fresh marks of 
my attachment to you and new expressions of the high sense 
I entertain of your military conduct and other important 
services in the course of the last campaign, although 
the latter are too well known to need the testimony of 
my approbation, and the former, I persuade myself, you 
believe is too well riveted to undergo diminution or 
change." 

What young man of twenty-four would not have been 
proud to receive such expressions of friendship and apprecia- 
tion from George Washington ? But Washington, as I have 
told you, was quick to see and prompt to acknowledge worth 
and merit in young men. He never said very much ; with 
him, indeed, actions spoke louder than words ; but, to the 
Marquis de Lafayette, he put his appreciation and affection 
into words, again and again. 

The young Frenchman was not so reserved and reticent 
as the great American. He fairly bubbled over with love for 



172 HO IV HE CAME TO AMERICA FOR THE THIRD TIME. 

" his dear general," and his last words to Washington read 
quite like a love letter. 

" Adieu, my dear general," he said. " I know your heart 




M 



LAFAYETTE WRITING TO WASHINGTON. 

"Adieu, my dear general. My love^ my respect., my gratitude for you are above expression.'' 

so well that I am sure that no distance can alter your attach- 
ment to me. With the same candor I assure you that my 
love, my respect, my gratitude for you are above expression ; 
that, at the moment of leaving you, I feel more than ever the 
struggle of those friendly ties that forever bind me to you, 
and that I anticipate the pleasure, the most wished-for pleas- 



HOW HE CAME TO AMERICA FOR THE THIRD TIME. 1 73 

ure, to be again with you, and, by my zeal and services, to 
gratify the feelings of my respect and affection." 

Then " the hero of two continents," as people began to 
call Lafayette, went back to his own people the second time. 
The same frigate " Alliance " which had been detailed by 
Congress to carry him back to France upon his first return 
- — when a mutiny, as you remember, very nearly kept him 
from getting home at all — swung at its moorings in Boston 
harbor, under orders to bear the marquis back to France, 
and on the twenty-third of December, 1781, Lafayette sailed 
away from Boston-town, homeward bound. 

Even before he sailed the rewards from France mingled 
with the words of appreciation from America. 

" Our joy is very great here and throughout the nation," 
wrote Vergennes, the great French Secretary of State, " and 
you may be assured that your name is held in veneration. 
... I have been following you, M. le Marquis, step by step, 
throughout your campaign in Virginia; and I should fre- 
quently have been anxious for your welfare if I had not been 
confident of your wisdom. It required a great deal of skill 
to maintain yourself, as you did, for so long a time, in spite 
of the disparity of your forces, before Lord Cornwallis, whose 
military talents are well known. It was you who brought 
him to the fatal ending, where, instead of his making you a 
prisoner of war, as he probably expected to do, you forced 
him to surrender." 

This was quite a change in tone, was it not, from the 



174 now HE CAME TO AMERICA FOR THE THIRD TIME. 

expressions of impatience from the same high ofificer of state 
who, four years before, complained that Lafayette had " run 
off again," but declared slightingly that " his age may, per- 
haps, justify his escapade," thus echoing the equally slighting 
remark about "the boy adventurer" made by the French 
ambassador in London, " Fortunately for him, his youth may 
shield him from the responsibility of his thoughtless acts. 
This is the only consolation left to me in the chagrin I feel 
in view of his most inconsiderate behavior." 

The " chagrin," you see, wore off very quickly in the light 
of Lafayette's record of achievement. The " inconsiderate 
behavior " became triumphant heroism. Nothing succeeds 
like success, it is said, and the story of Lafayette is further 
proof of the old adage. 

The king of France, too, who had disapproved as strongly 
of Lafayette's course as he had of assisting America; who 
had ordered him home when he tried to get away; who 
had sent messengers and detectives to hunt him down and 
force him back on the very eve of departure ; who had called 
him a deserter for leaving his regiment and a spendthrift 
because he had " squandered " money on America ; who had 
ordered him into arrest upon his first home-coming and for- 
bade him to show himself publicly at the court, because of 
his " disobedience," now hastened to recognize and reward the 
services of " his young soldier " in America, and wrote through 
his minister of war: "The king, having been informed, sir, of 
the military skill of which you have given repeated proof in 



HO IV HE CAiME TO AMERICA FOR THE THIRD TIME. 175 

the command of the various army corps entrusted to you in 
America, of the wisdom and prudence which have marked 
the services that you have performed in the interest of the 
United States, and of the confidence which you have won 
from General Washington, his Majesty has charged me to 
announce to you that the commendations which you most 
fully deserve have attracted his notice, and that your conduct 
and your success have given him, sir, the most favorable 
opinion of you, such as you might wish him to have, and 
upon which you may rely for his future good-will." 

And thereupon the king of France announced that he 
had promoted Monsieur the Marquis de Lafayette to be 
" Marechal de camp " (the same rank as major-general in the 
regular service, with us), the appointment to date from 
the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown. A marshal of 
France at twenty-four ! That was a distinct advance for 
the boy who had run away from home under the ban of 
his king only four years before, was it not ? 

On the seventeenth of January, 1782, Lafayette landed 
in France. The tone of appreciation and glorification that 
appeared in the letters of the king and his ministers became 
enthusiasm and popularity with the people, and the young 
Marquis de Lafayette was more of a hero than ever. 

" Conqueror of Cornwallis ! " " Savior of America with 
Washington ! " These and other extravagant expressions 
were showered upon him. Hero-worship, you see, is about 
the same in every age, and the same spirit which in old Bible 



176 HOiV HE CAME TO AMERICA FOR THE THIRD TIME. 

times cheered the young general David and cried, " Saul hath 
slain his thousands and David his tens of thousands," hailed 
Lafayette as " Savior of America," even as it sought to give 
precedence in our latest and shortest war to some one doer 
of valiant deeds as a hero beyond all others. But history 
rights all this in time. 

Though a queen came to visit him and the people cheered 
themselves hoarse ; though the marshals of France gave him, 
as their comrade, a banquet and a reception, and he was at 
once the lion of the day and hero of the hour, Lafayette 
seems to have been a calm and level-headed young man, and 
did not permit all this overpraise and hero-worship to turn 
his head. But it must be confessed that he did enjoy it all ! 

John Adams, to be sure, did go out of his way to declare, 
with somewhat vinegary tongue, that " Lafayette will think 
himself the one person necessary." But John Adams, Ameri- 
can commissioner to France, though a very great man and a 
very noble American and one to whom the republic owes a 
deathless debt of honor, did have a way of saying unjust and 
uncomfortable things about other men of prominence. Count- 
ing Lafayette as little more than a boy, he would occasionally 
try " to take him down "' lest the young Frenchman should 
feel his importance too much. But Lafayette never had a 
word to say against fussy John Adams. 

Good Doctor Franklin, however, also American commis- 
sioner to France, who always looked on the bright side of 
things and said the best of every one, wrote home, " The Mar- 



HOW HE CAME TO AMERICA FOR THE THIRD TIME. 



177 



quis de Lafayette daily gains in the general esteem and affec- 
tion, and promises to be a great man here. He is extremely 
attached to our cause ; we are on the most friendly and con- 
fidential footing with each other, and he is very serviceable 
to me in my application for additional assistance." 

So serviceable, indeed, did he prove to the American 
representatives who were seeking to strengthen the American 
cause in France, that, at their request, he remained in France 
longer than he intended. For Lafayette considered himself 
as at home only on a furlough, and he greatly desired to re- 
join the army in America as soon as active operations 
against the British should again be commenced. 

But these operations were never again to be active. 
Although negotiations moved slowly, and the road to peace 
was long, it came at last, and France was not again called 
upon to tight the English in America. 

"As a discourager to hesitancy," however, as Mr. Stock- 
ton would call it, France and Spain, in the fall of 1782, 
agreed to make a joint expedition and attack against the 
British power in America. Forthwith, a strong fleet and 
army were gathered — sixty big battle-ships, and twenty-four 
thousand soldiers — with the avowed purpose of sailing 
from the Spanish port of Cadiz to capture the English 
island of Jamaica, and attack New York and Canada. 

Lafayette was made chief of staff of the joint expedition, 
which was to be under the command of his relative, the 
Count d'Estaing; and, wearing the uniform of an American 



lyS HOW HE CAME TO AMERICA FOR THE THIRD TIME. 



general, he set out for Cadiz to join his command, anxious, 
as he wrote Washington, for the time to arrive when he 
might once more be united with him in a fight for " our 

dear old colors." 

But Spain, with 
her customary slow- 
ness of action, 
change of plans, and 
general nianana, dil- 
ly-dallied so long 
that the great ex- 
pedition did not sail 
at all ; for, before 
the close of 1782, the 
protocol was signed 
at Paris ; peace was 
assured, and the 
final and definitive 
treaty of peace, as 
the most of you 
know, was signed 
on the third of Sep- 
tember, 1783, and the 
American Revolution ended in acknowledgment and peace. 
As soon as the promise of peace became fact, Lafayette 
borrowed a war-ship from the Count d'Estaing, — appropri- 
ately named the "Triumph," — and hurried it off to Phila- 




LAFAVETTE IN I 7.S4. 
" Wearing the uniform of an A vterican general he set out for Cadiz.^ 



HOW HE CAME TO AMERICA FOR THE THIRD TIME. 



179 



delphia with the first news of the protocol. And, by the 
same ship, he sent a joyful letter to Washington. " As for 
you, my dear general, who can truly say that all this is your 
work," he wrote, " what must be the feelings of your good 
and virtuous heart in this happy moment ? The eternal 
honor in which my descendants will glory, will be to have 
had an ancestor among your soldiers, and to know that he 
had the good fortune of being a friend of your heart. To 
the eldest of them I bequeath, as long as my posterity shall 
endure, the favor that you have conferred upon my son 
George, by allowing him to bear your name," — for the 
marquis had named his only son George Washington 
Lafayette. 

Having thus despatched the " Triumph " with the first 
tidings of good news, Lafayette hastened to Madrid, where 
the court of Spain was conducting itself in its customary 
" nasty " manner, as the English would say, and by his 
energy and personal influence straightened things out, and 
even threatened Spain with the unfriendliness of France 
and the life-long enmity of America, if she did not at once 
properly and duly recover and recognize the American repre- 
sentative, and put matters on some reliable sort of footing. 
A good deal of a prophet as well as a diplomat was the 
Marquis de Lafayette. 

Back in France again, he did all he could to hasten the 
affairs of America to a successful conclusion, putting mean- 
while to practical account the lessons of liberty he had 



l8o J^OIV HE CAME TO AMERICA FOR THE THIRD TIME. 

learned so well in America. For, besides working with his 
beloved and loyal wife to better the condition of the French 
people on his own farm lands and estates in Auvergne and 
other parts of France, he also set on foot a movement for 
the abolition of slavery in the colonies of France, buying a 
plantation in the South American colony of Cayenne, in 
order that he might try to show what he could do by making 
his slaves free men. 

But before he undertook this last experiment in South 
America, he had once again set foot on the soil of North 
America. 

That expressed desire for a " safe return in the spring to 
my dear marquis, your affectionate friend, George Washing- 
ton," with which " his dear general's " good-bye letter had 
concluded, was not to be at once fulfilled ; but at last, on 
the first of July, 1784, after months of anticipation, Lafay- 
ette sailed from the French port of Havre, on a visit to his 
friends and comrades, the Americans. 

This visit had been all the more wished for by him 
because of Washington's evident desire to see him. The 
two men kept up a continual correspondence, and rarely has 
a friendship between a man of fifty-two and one of twenty- 
five been more sincere or devoted. 

Washington urged Lafayette to visit him, and begged 
Madame Lafayette, also, to accompany her husband. 

" Come then, let me entreat you," he wrote her. " Call 
my cottage your own ; for your own doors do not open to 



HO IV HE CAME TO AMERICA FOR THE THIRD TIME. l8l 

you with more readiness than would mine. You will see 
the plain manner in which we live, and meet with rustic 
civility; and you will taste the simplicity of rural life. It 
will diversify the scene, and may give you a higher 
relish for the gayeties of the court when you return to 
Versailles." 

But Madame Lafayette was a great home-body, and as 




MOUNT VERNON, THE HOME OF WASHINGTON. 
" ' Call my cottage your owft,' he wrote to Madanie La/ayettey 



much of a home-lover as Washington himself. Versailles 
really had no attractions for her, and the most of her time was 
spent in the gray old castle or chateau of Chavaniac, where 
Lafayette had spent his boyhood, hunting for wolves and 
dreaming of liberty, and she did not dare or care to risk. 



l82 HO IV HE CAME TO AMERICA FOR THE THIRD TIME. 

what, in those slow-going days, was, sometimes, the terrible 
voyage to America. 

So Lafayette came alone. But he came to a land which 
welcomed him as a brother ; to a chief who greeted him as 
a son. From the day of his landing in New York, on the 
fourth of August, 17S4, to the day of his departure from the 
same port, on the twenty-fifth of January, 1785, his Ameri- 
can visit was one series of ovations, one continuous round 
of cheers. Lafayette was, as Washington declared, " crowned 
everywhere with wreaths of love and respect ; " and not the 
least fragrant of these wreaths was the welcome which 
the great American himself gave to " his young soldier," 
and the happy days spent at Mount Vernon under what 
Washington called " the shadow of my own vine and my 
own fig-tree." 

More like a royal progress than a leisurely American tour 
was Lafayette's march across America. Multitudes wel- 
comed him everywhere. From New York to Philadelphia, 
to Richmond (where Washington met him), to Williams- 
burg, Yorktown, and Mount Vernon, revisiting the scenes of 
his Virginia campaign ; from there, northward again, to Balti- 
more, Philadelphia, and New York he progressed ; then, up 
the Hudson to Albany, where he went with the Indian com- 
missioners to talk with the dissatisfied Indians of the free 
nations, and made so good a speech to his " red brothers " 
that the commissioners were actually jealous of him, he jour- 
neyed on. Then, across country he went to Boston, hailed 



HOW HE CAME TO AMERICA EOR 2 HE THIRD TIME. 1 83 



with cheers, and there he was given a grand reception and 
banquet in Faneuil Hall, where, when a great portrait 
of Washington was unveiled behind him at table, the 
gallant marquis sprang to his feet and led off the burst of 
cheers. He travelled 
through New Eng- 
land as far as 
Portsmouth, and 
then with a last trip 
south, for a farewell 
visit to Washing- 
ton at Mount Ver- 
non, he worked his 
way back to New 
York, and on Christ- 
mas day sailed 
home to France. 

Washington 
bade him good-bye 
at Annapolis, and 
then went home to 
Mount Vernon to 
write him a farewell letter. " In the moment of our separa- 
tion," he said, " upon the road as I travelled and every hour 
since, I have felt all that love, respect, and attachment for 
you, with which length of years, close connection, and your 
merits have inspired me. . . . It is unnecessary, I persuade 




POHICK CHURCH, NEAR MOUNT VEK.NoN 
Where M'ashitigtott utid La/nyette "went to ckitrch together, itt 17S4- 



184 HOW HE CAME TO AMERICA FOR THE THIRD TIME. 

myself, to repeat to you, my dear marquis, the sincerity of 
my regards and friendship, nor have I words which could 
express my affection for you, were I to attempt it. My 
fervent prayers are offered for your safe and pleasant pas- 
sage, a happy meeting with Madame de Lafayette and family, 
and the completion of every wish of your heart." 

" Adieu, adieu, my dear general," wrote the marquis in 
reply. "It is with inexpressible pain that I feel I am going 
to be severed from you by the Atlantic. Everything that 
admiration, respect, gratitude, friendship, and filial love can 
inspire is combined in my affectionate heart to devote me 
most tenderly to you. In your friendship I find a delight 
which words cannot express. Adieu, my dear general. It 
is not without emotion that I write this word. Be attentive 
to your health. Let me hear from you every month. Adieu, 
adieu." 

Then our loving young ally, the friend of America, the 
hero of two continents, sailed out of the broad and beautiful 
harbor of New York, homeward bound once more, but 
looking forward with his customary optimism to a return at 
no distant day. It was many a day and many a year, how- 
ever, before the foot of Lafayette again trod the land he 
had helped deliver; much was to happen to himself 
and his own fatherland before he revisited the land of 
Washington. 



HOW HE TRIED TO MAKE AN AMERICA OF FRANCE. 1 85 



CHAPTER X. 

HOW HE TRIED TO MAKE AN AMERICA OF FRANCE. 

'T^HE Marquis de Lafayette was a young man who always 
^ wished to be doing something. He could not bear to 
keep still and he liked especially to interest himself in the 
advancement and bettering of the human race. 

This much his story must have told you from its very 
start. From the time when, as a small boy, he went boldly into 
the forests that encircled Chavaniac seeking to kill the wolves 
that annoyed his peasants, he seemed to be ever ready to go 
into the world, sword in hand, to slay the wolf of oppression. 
It was this noble desire that had sent him across the sea to 
America; that impelled him to work for the abolition of 
slavery, for the improvement of the conditions of the down- 
trodden peasants of France, and for the relief of the per- 
secuted Protestants who, from the days of the terrible 
Massacre of St. Bartholomew and the Revocation of the 
Edict of Nantes (both of which you may read of in French 
history), had no rights as citizens or as Frenchmen in their 
own home land. 

" Whatever be the complexion of the enslaved," he said 
to John Adams in 1786, " it does not in my opinion alter the 



1 86 HOW HE TRIED TO MAKE AN AMERICA OF FRANCE. 

complexion of the crime the enslaver commits." To deprive 
any man, black or white, Catholic or Protestant, of his God- 
given right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness was 
to the Marquis de Lafayette a wrong that must be righted, 
and he set himself to do the righting. He was one of 
the earliest exponents of what we call to-day " taking up the 
white man's burden." 

It w^as this deep-rooted love for liberty that led him to 
take and to lead the popular side in the great and tragic 
events that were soon to happen in the stirring story of 
France and her fight for freedom. 

Lafayette's experience in America, his knowledge of the 
American people and his share in their bold and triumphant 
stand for liberty, his admiration for Washington and his 
enthusiasm for the Declaration of Lidependence, and all that 
it had brought about, kept him deeply interested in America 
even after his return to his home, and led him to desire a 
similar happiness for France as a land where all men should 
be, what they never yet had been, free and equal. 

Thomas Jefferson was American minister to France. 
Lafayette had known him well in America, for the minister 
had been Governor Jefferson when Lafayette was getting the 
British in Virginia into a corner, and both the governor and 
the general had gone through many trying war experiences 
together. Then, too, Jefferson was the author of the Dec- 
laration of Independence; that, alone, would have made 
Lafayette his firm friend. 



HOW HE TRIED TO MAKE AN AMERICA OF FRANCE. 1 87 



He certainly was a firm friend to the American minister 
and the young nation the minister represented in France. 

" The Marquis de Lafayette is a most valuable auxiliary 
to me," Jefferson wrote to Washington in 1786. " His zeal is 
unbounded and his weight with those in power is great. . . . 
He has a great deal of 
sound genius, is well 
remarked by the king, 
and rising in popular- 
ity. He has nothing 
against him but the 
suspicion of republi- 
can principles. I think 
he will one day be of 
the ministry." 

There were many 
questions regarding 
the new American re- 
public, you see, coming 
up for arrangement 

and action in Europe, where France was as yet the only 
really friendly power, and the American minister to France 
had much hard work in conducting and settling these matters 
in the interest of his American countrymen. It was in 
these affairs that Lafayette's aid was valuable. He ob- 
tained concessions for Americans in regard to the importa- 
tion and sale of oil and tobacco, and his efforts in behalf 




IHOMAS JEFFERSDN. 
From tJie portrait by Gilbert Stuart. 



1 88 HOW HE TRIED TO MAKE AN AMERICA OF FRANCE. 

of the American whale fishery were so acceptable that the 
citizens of Nantucket, in town-meeting assembled, voted that 
every man in Nantucket who owned a cow should give all 
of one day's milk toward making a monstrous cheese which 
should be " transmitted to the Marquis de Lafayette as a 
feeble but not less sincere testimonial of their affection and 
gratitude." 

The cheese weighed five hundred pounds and was really 
as fully appreciated by Lafayette as were the busts of him 
made by order of the State of Virginia by the sculptor 
Houdon and placed, one in the State Capitol at Richmond 
and the other in the City Hall at Paris. 

Lafayette's own desires and his close association, while 
they were in France, with such prominent American citizens 
and believers in the liberty of the people as Benjamin Frank- 
lin, Thomas Jefferson, and Gouverneur Morris had developed 
in him something more than " the suspicion of republican prin- 
ciples," which Jefferson said were laid to his charge. He had 
the republican principles indeed very strongly developed ; and 
in the growing thirst for liberty which America's success had 
given France, Lafayette began to see a realization of his boy- 
ish dreams, when, with his young wife, he planned great 
schemes for the happiness of the world in general, and for 
their own dear France in particular. 

But France was not America. The English colonists 
across the. sea had, from their very beginning, been very 
nearly free and independent — in fact, if not in name. It'\\-as 



HO IV HE TRIED TO MAKE AN AMERICA OF FRANCE. 189 

only when the obstinate George III., king of England, with 
his absurd notions that he was not a king if he could not 
have absolute control in all portions of his dominion, him- 
self played the rebel and set himself against all the sworn 
and promised guarantees to the American colonists, that 
those colonists protested against his invasion of all their 
inherited rights, and announced their determination to 
struggle for those rights to the end, even if it led to absolute 
independence of English rule and authority. And this was 
what they won. 

In France, things were vastly different. A few pure- 
minded men and enthusiastic philanthropists, like the Count 
de Segur and the Marquis de Lafayette, had dreams of 
liberty, or rather of equal rights in France, in which the 
king should be a sort of lawful head or perpetual president ; 
but very few among the upper class, and none of the nobles 
who lived on the king as courtiers, had any faith in or 
desire for such a result as this. The people of France, down- 
trodden and neglected for centuries, used only as something 
to be drawn upon by the upper classes for labor or for 
money, had but one idea of freedom, — the liberty to do as 
they pleased, and to " get square with " the nobles who had 
ground them down through generations of toil and service 
and slavery. 

So, when the dreamers about liberty — both those who 
really desired that France should have a constitution and 
manhood freedom as in America, and those who liked to 



190 HOW HE TRIED TO MAKE AN AMERICA OE FRANCE. 

talk about liberty but did not really wish to see it — set the 
people of France to thinking, to hoping, and at last to 
demanding, things went wrong in France, simply because 
they were not started right. Progress to be real progress 
must begin right ; otherwise it will become brutality before 
it is really set going on the right track ; for, remember this, 
the right track will surely be found at last ; the world never 
goes backward. The people of France had wrongs ten 
thousand times heavier than those of the people of America. 
But the Americans were self-educated in liberty ; the 
French plunged into it headlong. 

It must be admitted that one of the men who helped 
toward this headlong plunge was the Marquis de Lafayette. 
He did not intend it to come as it did ; but he was, as you 
know, impulsive, enthusiastic, and just a bit headstrong ; he 
was an ardent believer in the liberty of the people, — in 
" liberty, equality and fraternity," as the old watchwords used 
to run. But he only believed in liberty brought about and 
established through reason and order and law. He saw in 
what trouble and disorder the United States of America, 
were after the Revolution had secured the independence 
they found it hard to maintain until a constitution and a 
president gave them union and order. So Lafayette desired 
for France first a constitution and a constitutional king, in 
order that the liberty of the people and the real freedom of 
the nation might be both guarded and guided. 

But to desire and to have are quite different things. 



HOW HE TRIED TO MAKE AN AMERICA OE ERANCE. 



191 



France had no Washington as a guiding hand. Her king 
was weak and a Bourbon, — history will tell you what that 
means ; her queen was frivolous and aristocratic ; her ruling 
classes were haughty and arrogant ; her people down-trodden 
and brutalized; and, between the highest and the lowest 
orders, stood the great middle class, swayed now this way 
and now that, as their desires changed, thinking only of 
Number One, and uncertain as to what they really did want. 
It was this conflicting, divided, envious, and hostile confusion 
of elements out of which young Lafayette hoped to bring his 
grand ideal of liberty. But even Lafayette was not Wash- 
ington, as France was not America. 

But Lafayette struggled nobly. In the Chief Council of 
the nation, styled the Assembly of Notables, he labored hard 
to bring the nobles and landowners of France to make 
France really free, and when the greater convention or con- 
gress of the people met, known as the National Assembly, 
in 1789, he brought before it a "declaration of rights " drawn 
up by him and founded upon, as it was copied after, Jeffer- 
son's Declaration of Independence. America, you see, was 
his idea of popular liberty. 

But the king and the nobles, stupid in their obstinacy, 
and clinging foolishly to what they called their inherited and 
" God-given " rights, would have none of Lafayette's 
Declaration of Independence ; the people, just awakening to 
a knowledge of their own power, would go far beyond Lafay- 
ette's orderly independence. So the struggle, urged on by 



192 



HOW HE TRIED TO MAKE AN AMERICA OF FRANCE. 



dissension, misunderstanding, selfishness, and greed, — to 
which was added that dawning knowledge of real power like 
that which can change a well-broken horse into a furious 
runaway, — finally burst into that dreadful time of horror, 
crime, and death, known as the French Revolution — the 
bloody Reign of Terror. It was a dreadful chapter in the 
world's story ; but as, out of evil, good at last may come, so 
even the Reign of Terror served a glorious end, and helped 
secure, for all the world, that broader liberty, toward ^\•hich 
for centuries the world had been struggling and \vhich, in 
America, found its grandest success. 

But, in France, liberty did not come in the right way, 
and though all France turned Benjamin Franklin's optimis- 
tic saying, " Go it ! things will come 'round all right," into 
the popular song " Ca im " (go it), Lafayette felt it was not 
" going " the right way, and nobly tried to stem the rising 
tide of lawless revolution. 

He could not do it. The people rose against the king, 
against the court, against the nobility. First protected and 
then imprisoned by his own soldiers and his own subjects, 
the weak King Louis XVI. gave in when he had to, ran off 
when he could, refused to die defending what he called his 
" rights " as he might have done like a hero, and finally mis- 
erably ended his life on the scaffold, — the sad spectacle of 
a king who was no king murdered by subjects who refused 
to be subjects. 

In the interest of law and order Lafayette strove in the 




ONE OF FRANCE'S HOLIDAYS. 
A 7ttnial celebration in Paris of the Fall of the Bastile ; July 14, lyqo. 



HOW HE TRIED TO MAKE AN AMERICA OF FRANCE. 195 

Assembly as the protector of the liberties he pleaded for, 
and of the constitution he helped to make. He accepted the 
command of the National Guard, — the volunteer army of 
France, numbering nearly three millions of men. But when 
the people, realizing their strength, broke over all bounds and 
swept away king, throne, law, and order, Lafayette strove 
valiantly to protect the weak and defend the defenceless, 
" the minister of humanity and order," so Mr. Bigelow 
describes him, " among a frenzied people who had come to 
regard order and humanity as phases of treason." 

Again and again with his National Guardsmen he 
defended the king and the palace from assault and rescued 
the queen, " that Austrian," the people called her, from the 
infuriated mobs of Paris. 

And yet, for all its terrors, this rising of the people had 
its grand side, and one that must have appealed strongly 
to such a liberty-lover as Lafayette. It had its picturesque 
side, too, as when, led by Lafayette, three hundred thousand 
Frenchmen before a monument to Liberty swore to defend 
the constitution — the king and queen of France last of 
all taking the oath of patriotism. It had its dramatic side, 
also, as when, on the fourteenth of July, 1790, the people of 
Paris stormed and captured that hated stronghold of tyranny, 
the Bastile, or political prison of Paris, the key of which you 
may to-day see, as it hangs in the mansion at quiet Mount 
Vernon, the gift of Lafayette to Washington. 

But the time came when even Lafayette could not hold 



1 96 HO IV HE TRIED TO MAKE AN' AMERICA OF FRANCE. 

back the storm. Gathering strength with their success, the 
people grew bolder and demanded more and more. The old 
monarchy was destroyed ; the constitution was established, 
the king and queen were at the mercy of the people, — ruled 
instead of ruling. In all of these things Lafayette believed. 
His American experience showed him the uselessness of 
aristocracy and the vanity of caste. When, in the National 
Assembly, a delegate demanded the abolition of titles of 
nobility, Lafayette at once agreed. 

" Say not," he cried, " ' Such a one has been made noble 
and count for having saved the state on such a day.' Say 
only, ' Such a one saved the state on such a day.' It seems 
to me that these words have something of an American 
character, precious fruit of the New World, which ought to 
aid much in rejuvenating the old one." 

And, sincere in what he demanded, the Marquis de 
Lafayette dropped from his name both the " marquis " and 
the " de," titles that indicated so-called noble birth. He never 
used them again ; and when, after the French Re\'olution 
was over, and emperors and kings ruled again in France, all 
titles of nobility were restored, Lafayette, true to his con- 
victions, never called himself nor suffered himself to be 
addressed as the Marquis de Lafayette. To the day of his 
death he knew himself only as General Lafayette. 

Faster and heavier the billows of revolution and disorder 
broke against the throne of France. The throne itself tot- 
tered and fell ; the king and queen were persecuted, imprisoned. 



HO IV HE TRIED TO MAKE AN AMERICA OE FRANCE. ICfl 

and killed ; from doing away with titles of nobility the peo- 
ple passed to doing away with the nobles themselves ; fanatics 
and madmen took the place of republicans and patriots ; the 
thirst for blood ran high in the unbridled people ; murder 
and brutality came cruelly instead of law and order, and 
Lafayette, unable to stay the storm that he himself had helped 
to raise, resigned his position as commander of a guard he 
could not command, and, from the most powerful man in all 
France, became the most hated, — by the nobles and royal- 
ists, because they held him responsible for all their troubles ; 
by the people and their leaders, because he would not follow 
them across the borders of order and of law into anarchy 
and crime. 

But when the nobles and royalists who could escape from 
France went about Europe stirring up trouble and urging the 
kings of other nations to take up arms against the French 
people, and war was actually declared, Lafayette rallied the 
soldiers of France to defend their home land from Austrian 
invasion and kingly assault. He took the field at the head 
of his army, and, as he marched through Paris to the 
defence of the borders, the National Assembly bade him 
Godspeed, while its president solemnly declared that " the 
French people, which have sworn to conquer or die 
in the cause of liberty, will always confidently oppose 
to the world and to their enemies the Constitution and 
Lafayette ! " 

That was all " very French," as we say, of course ; but you 



198 HO IV HE TRIED TO MAKE AN AMERICA OF FRANCE. 

see, for the moment again, Lafayette had become the nation's 
hero and its chief reliance. 




XAPOI.EOX BO.N'AI'AKTIC. 
A t the age 0/22. From Greuze's portrait. 



But where was the use of opposing " the Constitution and 
Lafayette " to enemies when those enemies were in force 



HOW HE TRIED TO MAKE AN AMERICA OF FRANCE. 1 99 

within the nation's councils, — when they were, in fact, 
the nation itself? The French people in the year 1789, 
like the runaway horse to which I have compared them, had 
taken the bit in their teeth ; they broke free from all con- 
trol, flung aside or trampled down those who would have 
restrained or guided them, and dashed away in a reckless 
and headlong gallop toward destruction, from which only a 
firm and masterful hand at last caught and saved them, — 
the hand of Napoleon Bonaparte. 

Among those thus flung aside was Lafayette. When 
Liberty became lawlessness and the rule of order became the 
reign of blood, Lafayette, distressed and disgusted, seeing 
that, because of the people themselves, he could not hope 
to make an America of France, turned upon the chief repre- 
sentatives of disorder, denounced them to their faces, and 
called upon the National Assembly, the direct representatives 
of the people, to suppress and punish them. But the chiefs 
of disorder — the Jacobins as they were called — were the real 
rulers of France just then, and the Assembly dared not and 
could not restrain them even had it wished. Instead, the 
hatred and anger of the Jacobins were turned upon the brave 
Lafayette who dared to withstand and denounce them ; the 
hero of the nation, the friend of America, the valiant young 
general of France, became an exile and an outcast, denounced 
as a traitor by the Assembly he had helped to create, dis- 
missed from his command of the army by the rulers he had 
dared to defy, and, with no choice except submission or death. 



200 FROM THE FRYING -PAN INTO THE FIRE. 

turned his back on his country and fled for refuge into Bel- 
gium, there to remain, so he declared, " until he could some 
day be again of service to liberty to France." 

His dreams of Americanizing France had come to a 
sad and sorry end. Once again he was a runaway from 
France, flying not to the aid of liberty, but from the curse 
of lawlessness. 



CHAPTER XL 

HOW HE FELL FROM THE FRYING-PAN INTO THE FIRE. 

T^riTH a few comrades, officers of the army who, like him, 
had been proclaimed traitors because they dared to 
criticise the overthrow of the constitution, the murder of the 
king, and the reign of lawlessness and blood, Lafayette rode 
sadly out of France, unable even to see or to counsel with 
the faithful wife and dear children amonsf the Auverofne hills. 
From Sedan, where he had been stationed and where the 
empire he labored to prevent came to a disastrous end, eighty 
years later, Lafayette and his companions crossed the border 
into Belgium at the little town of Bouillon. Lafayette had 
almost decided to make his way to England and there take 
ship to America; for he knew that, hated as much by the 
exiled nobility as by the fierce revolutionists of France, a 
home on either side of the French border was full of risk and 



FROM THE FRYING-PAN INTO THE FIRE. 20I 

danger. Even the path along which he and his companions 
rode was as dangerous as an ambush ; for hidden foes lurked 
everywhere. 

Austria was at war with France. Austrian troops and 
their Prussian allies threatened the borders of France 
and garrisoned the outposts of Belgium. At one of these 
outposts, the town of Rochefort in Belgium, Lafayette and 
his party were stopped because they had no papers or pass- 
ports permitting them to proceed. So, one of Lafayette's 
friends rode to the nearest large town, Namur, to procure 
the proper passports. But when he told the authorities that 
these papers were desired for General Lafayette and his 
friends, at once there was trouble. 

" Lafayette ! the enemy of the monarchy and of estab 
lished order? Never!" and fast on the heels of this refusal 
came orders from the Austrian headquarters to arrest and 
hold as prisoners Lafayette and his companions. 

They were found at Liege ; there they were arrested, and, 
in spite of Lafayette's indignant protest, and his claim that 
he was on neutral territory in Belgium, the party was held as 
prisoners ; but Lafayette was made to understand by a secret 
message that if he would " recant," — that is deny and give 
up his republican principles, — and if he would give the ene- 
mies of France information by which they could push the 
war to success, he would be granted his liberty. 

Of course you know the one indignant word that Lafay- 
ette would give as his answer to this hateful proposition. 



202 FROM THE FRYING-PAN INTO THE FIRE. 

The man who had risked his life and given so much of his 
fortune for liberty in America and freedom in France, who 
had stood beside Washington through the dark days of 
Arnold's treason, and had signed the death-warrant of Andre 
the spy, could make but one reply. 

" Never ! " he cried, indignantly, and then went willingly 
into the damp dungeon of the Prussian fortress at Wesel on 
the Rhine, where Charlemagne had battled for his homeland 
and German patriots had died for liberty. He who, had he 
been supported, would have saved France from ignominy 
and the king and queen from death ; who had been hailed 
by his fellow countrymen as " Lafayette, for America and for 
Europe, the standard of liberty," was delivered into the hands 
of the enemies of liberty by the hatred of the friends of law- 
lessness. 

Lafayette was thrust into a cold, damp cell and left there 
neglected and poorly fed until his health began to suffer, 
when he was again offered comforts and freedom if he would 
give up to the Austrians the public treasure which they 
charged him with taking from France, and would disclose 
to the enemy the military plans of the republican army. To 
the charge of embezzlement he replied with haughty con- 
tempt ; to the bribe for treachery he again returned an 
indignant No. 

The enemies of France felt that they had secured so im- 
portant a French prisoner, — for to Lafayette, as the chief 
apostle of liberty, the royalists of Europe charged all the 



FROM THE FRYING-PAN INTO THE FIRE. 203 

upheaval in France, — that they removed him for greater 
security from the military prison at Wesel to the strong and 
famous fortress at Magdeburg on the Elbe, where Tilly 
wrought such horrors in the Thirty Years' War, and where 
Luther had sung in the streets for bread. 

There for five months Lafayette lay in a damp and 
mouldy cell, only eight feet by four in size, into which never 
came the light of the sun. But his honor and integrity 
were proof against persecution, threat, or bribe, and, as Prus- 
sia began to fear the strength of France, Lafayette was given 
into the keeping of France's bitterest foe, the emperor of 
Austria, and was by his Austrian captors secretly smuggled 
across the frontier. Then, with his name suppressed, identi- 
fied only by a prison number, his very existence known 
to but a few trusted prison officials, the friend of America, 
the companion of Washington, the hero of two nations, was 
thrown into the secret, grave-like prison of the old convent 
at Olmutz, a fortress town of Moravia in Central Austria, 
hidden away from the reach of either friend or foe. 

Both friends and foes of Lafayette existed in plenty. At 
first the foes seemed in the majority, for alike the embittered 
refugee royalists and the enraged republican fanatics of 
France threatened not only his own life but the lives of 
those he held most dear. 

His devoted wife was arrested in the old chateau at 
Chavaniac, and but for her firm stand, her defiance of the 
madmen in power, and her stirring use of Lafayette's name 



>04 



FROM THE FRYING-PAN INTO THE FIRE. 



and of the sacrifices he had made for Hberty, both her own 
and her children's lives would have gone to swell the terrible 
lists of victims which have made the crimes of the Reign of 
Terror well-nigh blot out all the wonderful good that the 




THE AUSTRIAN PRISON OF LAFAYETTE. 

Tlie Theresiciiihor gate of the Conveirt-Cnstle of Olmitiz. Lafnyeite^s dititgeott was hei^eath this gate. 
From a photograph taken in May, l8q(}. 

uprising of the French people really accomplished for liberty, 
humanity, and progress. But France, let me again remind 
you, was not America ; where one people was sent to school 
to liberty, the other was thrust into it so suddenly that, 
naturally, as I have told you, they did the wrong thing first. 



FROM THE FRYING-PAN INTO THE FIRE. 



205 



And Madame Lafayette very nearly fell a victim to the un- 
checked rage of that wrong thing. The story of the wife of 
Lafayette should be known to every girl and boy, for it is 
one of heroism, devotion, and self-satrifice sulificient to enroll 
her among the noble and historic women of the world. 

She was imprisoned, persecuted, and threatened with 
death ; but, though pressed hard by poverty when the state 
denounced Lafayette as an e'migr'e, or runaway, and confis- 
cated all his property and income, though she saw her friends 
and relatives die, one after another, beneath the knife of the 
murderous guillotine, as " enemies of France," Madame La- 
fayette still kept calm, determined, and high-spirited, working 
hard, first to discover the whereabouts of her captive hus- 
band, and next, to secure his release. 

Through the American ministers resident in Europe she 
implored America to help her. She wrote to Washington, 
then President of the United States, begging him to inter- 
cede with the powers of Europe for Lafayette's release. And 
when, at last, she learned the place of her husband's secret 
imprisonment, through letters smuggled to her through the 
American minister, she begged of the republican tyrants of 
France and the imperial tyrant of Austria the privilege 
of sharing her husband's imprisonment. 

You would have thought this example of devotion and 
self-sacrifice would have softened the hearts of her persecu- 
tors. But it did not. Chavaniac was put up for public 
sale. Madame Lafayette, as the wife of a " runaway," and as 



2o6 



FROM THE FRYING-PAN INTO THE FIRE. 



herself an " aristocrat," was torn from her children and flung 
into the overcrowded district prison, from which at last she 
was transferred to Paris, and imprisoned in that very Convent 
of de Plessis, where, you may remember, her husband as a 
boy had once gone to school ; and there she was again and 

again brought face to face 




with death — for her nobility ! 
The condemnation, how- 
ever, did not come. The 
American minister, Gouver- 
neur Morris, of New York, 
to whom, you may remember, 
Lafayette first applied for 
service in America, and who, 
from lending her money in 
her poverty to standing up 
bravely in her defence at the 
risk of his own life as well as 
of hers, had done all he could 
to lessen the sufferings and 
save the life of the wife of 
Lafayette, now boldly dared the Committee of Safety, who 
were the chief butchers of France, to lay a hand on the 
wife of Lafayette. It was this last word of Morris, as he 
was sent back to America because he had too much sym- 
pathy with the victims of French " liberty," that saved 
Madame Lafayette's life. 



THE WIFE OF LAFAYETTE. 

Madame A drietnte de La/ayette. From an etching by 
Rosenthal. 



FROM THE FRYING-PAN INTO THE FIRE. 



207 



I 



" If you kill the wife of Lafayette," he said to the blood- 
thirsty " Committee of Safety," which was considering her 
case, " all the enemies of the Republic and of popular liberty 
will rejoice ; you will make America hostile, and justify 
England in her slanders against you." 

It was bold talk and, as I have told you, it cost the brave 
Morris his office ; but it had its effect. On the day of her 
examination in court the Chief Commissioner was especially 
insolent. 

" I have old scores against you," he said to the wife of 
Lafayette. " I detest you, your husband, and your name." 

Madame Lafayette never faltered in her high spirit. 

" I shall always defend my husband," she answered, fear- 
lessly, " and as for a name — there is no wrong in that." 

" You are insolent," shouted the angry commissioner ; 
but he did not order to execution the wife of Lafayette ! 

Then, suddenly, came a revolt against the leaders, as one 
party in France rose against the other. On the twenty- 
second of January, 1795, the prison doors were opened and 
Madame Lafayette was set free. 

She hurried at once to Chavaniac, which had been pur- 
chased for her by one of her friends, gathered her children 
together, sent her only son George flying to America to the 
care and guardianship of Washington, and then, as another 
Reign of Terror seemed approaching in the fierce war of 
party hatred, she obtained permission to leave France. At 
once she crossed into Germany, where she was helped with 



2o8 FROM THE FRYING-PAN INTO THE FIRE. 

money and papers by the American consuls, and travelled 
under the name of " Mrs. Motier, of Hartford, in Connec- 
ticut," to the Austrian frontier, proceeding at once to Vienna, 
and demanding of the emperor one favor only, — permission 
to share her husband's captivity. 

Meantime, that captivity had not been without its excite- 
ments. Imprisoned in a dark, damp fortress ; never addressed 
by name, and known only by a number; separated from his 
comrades in misery, allowed neither knife nor fork for fear 
he might kill himself; deprived of his books, his liberty, and 
his name, Lafayette's naturally strong constitution weakened 
under the strain and he fell seriously ill, after a few 
months of this imprisonment. 

But though his constitution weakened, his spirit and his 
faith did not diminish. With his only pen, a toothpick 
dipped in lime-juice, dirt-made ink, or even in blood, he wrote 
these words : " The cause of the people is, to me, as sacred 
as ever. For that I would give my blood, drop by drop ; I 
should reproach myself at every instant of my life that was 
not devoted to the cause." And, alone, in his dreary cell he 
remembered the birthday of American freedom, and kept the 
Fourth of July as a holiday and a holy day. 

At last his health becaixie so bad that the prison author- 
ities, not wishing to lose so illustrious a prisoner, permitted 
him to take the air every day, walking or riding, but strongly 
guarded. Then it was that an escape was planned. 

There was living at that time in Vienna a young fellow 



FROM THE FRYING-PAN INTO THE FIRE. 



209 



whose name you may recall, — Francis Kinlock Huger. He 
was the young American who, as a small boy, had stood 
beside his father in the open doorway of a South Carolina 
seashore mansion and, at midnight, amid his dogs and his 
torches, had welcomed Lafayette to America. His father had 
been a continental colonel attached to Lafayette's command 
in Virginia, and young Frank Huger had retained so deep an 
admiration for his hero that here he was in Vienna, trying to 
obtain tidings as to his whereabouts. 

These came at last. For there met him in Vienna a 
certain German physician and admirer of Lafayette, Doctor 
Bollman by name, a stranger to young Huger, but holding 
a kindred sentiment, admiration for Lafayette. 

"Lafayette is in Olmutz," the doctor told Frank Huger- 
and then he e.xplained how he had ferreted out the hiding- 
place of their hero. He had misled and shrewdly used, as a 
go-between, the physician who was visiting the sick man in 
prison, and by means of chemical paper and sympathetic ink 
he had actually communicated with Lafayette (whom, by the 
way, he had never seen) and arranged a plan of escape to be 
attempted on some day when the prisoner was taking his 
" constitutional." 

Young Frank Huger entered heartily into Doctor Boll- 
man's plot, and together the two conspirators made ready 
their signals, their horses, and their plan of attack and way 
for escape. By ink and candle Lafayette had read their 
secret writing ; he had thus learned part of their plans in 



2IO FROM THE FRYING-PAN INTO IHK FIRF. 

his behalf, and one day, in November, 1794, as he rode out, 
accompanied by an officer and two soldiers as his guard, 
Doctor Bollman and Frank Huger made their effort at res- 
cue. Lafayette and the officer left the carriage for a walk 
along the road ; the carriage, with the soldiers, drove on 
ahead ; then, when it was far in advance, Bollman and 
Huger, watching from their saddles for just this opportu- 
nity, charged swiftly upon Lafayette's companion while the 
prisoner, turning upon him, snatched at his unsheathed sword 
and tried to disarm him. But the Austrian was plucky and 
fought his assailants savagely; for while Huger held the 
horses the doctor ran to the assistance of the marquis, whose 
strength had been sapped by his sickness and imprisonment. 

The guards, alarmed at the attempt at rescue, made no 
effort to support their officer, but drove madly off for help; 
the officer fought so desperately that he bit and wounded 
Lafayette in the hand ; but he was at last thrown to the 
ground and held there by the German doctor. 

Frank Huger, still holding both the restless horses with 
one hand, helped to gag the overpowered Austrian w ith his 
handkerchief. Being thus single-handed he could not hold 
both the horses, and one of them, with a jerk, broke from the 
young man's grasp and dashed away. Bollman thrust a 
purse with money into Lafayette's hand and, still holding 
down the struggling Austrian, cried out to Lafayette in 
English, so that the officer might not understand his words: 
"Get to Hoff! Get to Hoff!" 



FROM THE FRYING-PAN INTO THE FIRE. 



21 1 



Lafayette, excited and upset by what looked like a suc- 
cessful escape, was too intent on getting away to take special 
notice of the doctor's directions. He supposed him to be 




THE ESCAPE FROM OLMUTZ. 
' Springing: to tJie saddle, he galloped off a/ree inan^^ 



merely saying, "Get off; get off," and, with Frank Huger's 
help, springing to the saddle of the remaining horse, he gal- 
loped off a free man. But never thinking about Hoff, at 
which town his rescuers had arranged for fresh horses, 



212 FROM THE FRYING-PAN INTO THE FIRE. 

Lafayette took the first and, of course, the wrong road. 
It led to Jagerndorf on the German frontier, and the relay 
of horses at Hoff was missed. But before he reached 
Jagerndorf his horse gave out and, while trying to get a 
fresh one in the unfamiliar town, he was recognized, 
arrested, and taken back to his dreary prison cell at 
Olmutz. 

Bollman and Huger, disappointed in their plans by 
this unfortunate mix-up of the German "Hoff" and the 
English " off," were also arrested while searching for the lost 
Lafayette. They were at once thrown into prison, chained, 
starved, and nearly tortured to death, while Lafayette in 
his solitary cell was persecuted with fresh punishment, for- 
bidden to speak or be spoken to, and, neglected, ragged and 
in solitude, lost alike his health and his spirits, believing 
himself forgotten and forsaken by all the world. 

The only words spoken to him were the lies of his guards 
as to the fate in store for his friends, the doctor and the 
young American, and the hints as to his own fate. 

It is pleasant to know, however, that the two men who 
made so gallant an attack at rescue did not die in an Austrian 
prison. After eight months in their dungeons they were set 
free by the clemency of an Austrian magistrate and exiled 
from the country. They both went to America, where Doctor 
Bollman became a political adventurer and Aaron Burr's 
right-hand man in his unsuccessful conspiracy against the 
republic. He would have been seriously punished had not 



FROM THE FRYING-PAN INTO THE FIRE.- 213 

Lafayette remembered his attempted services at Olmutz and 
begged President Jefferson to set the doctor free. Young 
Frank Huger lived to welcome the hero he so admired when, 
in 1824, Lafayette made his last visit to America. 

But if Lafayette's rescuers were set free, the general was 
not. Closely and cruelly guarded, he dragged on a miserable 
existence in his Olmutz dungeon until the first day of October, 
1795. Worn out, alike in mind and body, he was sitting, in 
the early morning, in the solitude of his cell when, with a 
rattle and a clank, the bolt of his cell door was pushed aside. 
It was not the hour either for guard or doctor. 

" It is my summons to execution," Lafayette said to 
himself, — a summons he was always anticipating. So, 
calling up all his courage, he rose to face his fate like the 
hero that he was. 

The door swung open, the guards lined the entrance, and 
there, beneath the crossed swords of the soldiers, Lafayette, 
as if in a dream, saw advancing to meet him, his wife and 
his two young daughters ! 

Can you imagine anything more dramatic or dumfound- 
ing? The poor man was simply speechless with surprise 
and joy ; the reaction and the surprise quite overcame him, 
and it was hours before he could talk with his wife and chil- 
dren, and a whole day before he dared to ask of France and 
her condition. 

Madame Lafayette had carried her point. She saw the 
emperor of Austria, won him over by her determined devo- 



214 FROM THE FRYING-PAN INTO THE FIRE. 

tion, and secured from him permission to share, with her 
daughters, her husband's captivity. 

They drove at once to Olmutz, and, as the walls of the 
fortress came in sight, the devoted and noble woman, even 
though on her way to prison, broke out with the chant of 
thanksgiving she had learned as a girl in her convent school 
to sing in acknowledgment for mercies received from 
heaven : " Blessed be God that liveth forever, and blessed be 
his kingdom ; I will extol my God and my soul shall praise 
the King of Heaven." 

Lafayette's health and spirits returned in these new con- 
ditions and, with his wife and daughters, he made for a time 
a happy home, in spite of all the discomforts of that dreary 
prison of Olmutz. But the taint of prison-life soon touched 
them all. The girls fell ill of prison-fever, and their mother 
of blood poisoning. But when at last she felt that some- 
thing must be done, and appealed to the emperor for permis- 
sion to visit Vienna and consult a doctor, the heartless reply 
came, " Only on condition that you do not go back to 
Olmutz." 

She would not desert her husband. 

" I will never expose myself to the horrors of another 
separation from my husband," she declared ; and so she and 
her daughters stayed on, enduring privation, sickness, and 
the risk of death rather than abandon the father who would 
not yield up his principles for his liberty. 

" Swear to me," demanded Lafayette, of his friends, who 




LAFAYETTE SURPRISED IN PRISON. 
" Beneath ihe crossed s^vords Lafayette, as if in a dream, saiv, advancing to *iieet him, his ivife and daughters.* 



FROM THE FRYING-PAN INTO THE FIRE. 21 7 

urged the emperor to release him " not to plead for me on 
any occasion except in a way compatible with my principles." 

The whole civilized world became interested in the 
Lafayette case. England and America joined hands in 
attempting to secure the patriot's release. The British gen- 
eral whom he had fought at Brandywine moved Parliament 
again and again to interfere in behalf of Lafayette ; and Fox, 
the great English orator, added his eloquence to plead " in 
favor," so he said, " of a noble character, which will flourish 
in the annals of the world, and live in the veneration of pos- 
terity, when kings, and the crowns they wear, will be no more 
regarded than the dust to which they must return." 

This, from the generous foe in England ; and from 
America came appeal after appeal. Washington, setting 
aside his expressed determination never to mix in European 
politics, wrote to the courts of Prussia and Austria implor- 
ing and demanding the release of his friend. Jefferson and 
Jay, Morris and Marshall and Monroe, worked and labored 
for the same end ; but America was not loved in the tyranni- 
cal courts of Europe, and neither English eloquence nor 
American petitions moved the jailers of Lafayette. 

But a new star was rising in the skies of France while 
Lafayette lay in the dungeon of Olmutz. Napoleon Bonaparte 
was springing into fame and striding on to power. In 1796 
he crossed the Alps into Italy, overthrew and crushed the 
might of Austria, and, almost before the walls of Vienna, 
dictated terms to which the humbled emperor of Austria was 



2lS FRUM THE FRYING- PAN INTO THE FIRE. 

obliged to submit. And the only condition upon which 
Napoleon would sign the treaty of peace was the instant 
liberation of Lafayette. 

It was a bitter pill for the emperor of Austria to swallow. 
He hedged and dodged and hesitated. But he was forced to 
come to it at last ; and on the seventeenth of September, 
1797, after five years of imprisonment, Lafayette with his 
wife and children walked out of Olmutz prison a free man- 
But the emperor of Austria was an obstinate man ; he would 
not acknowledge the murderers of Marie Antoinette, as he 
deemed the French. So Lafayette was formally delivered 
by the Austrian authorities to the charge of the American 
consul, with the assurance of the emperor that " Monsieur the 
Marquis de Lafayette was released from imprisonment 
simply because of the emperor's desire to favor and gratify 
America ! " 

But all the world knew that the real deliverer was not 
America, but Napoleon Bonaparte, the young Corsican con- 
queror, whom Austria feared — but obeyed and hated. 



M^If}' HE CAME TO AMERICA FOR THE FOURTH TIME. 



219 



CHAPTER XII. 

WHY HE CAME TO AMERICA FOR THE FOURTH TIME, 

IVTAPOLEON BONAPARTE had liberated Lafayette 
from an Austrian prison, not because he loved Lafay- 
ette, but because he was a shrewd man bent on strengthening 
his popularity at the expense of Austria and Germany, and 
in apparent concession to the wishes of France and America. 

It was a splendid exhibition of the power possessed by 
this young general of the army of France, whose success 
had already surprised and startled the world. But the ban 
of exile and the sentence for treason passed upon Lafayette 
by the rulers of France was not at once removed, and, 
though freed from prison, he could not return to France. 

He came from his Olmutz dungeon poor in health, in 
pocket, and in opportunity. Kings and nobles hated him 
" as the mainspring " of republicanism ; the democrats of 
France were enraged against him because he boldly opposed 
their methods. He had no place to call his home ; his for- 
tune was swept away ; he was even dependent upon others 
for the necessaries of life. 

But friends Lafayette never lacked. They seemed to be 
raised up for him always in times of need. Washington, 



220 JV/^y HE CAME TO AMERICA FOR THE FOURTH TIME. 

you remember, had sent Madame Lafayette money in her 
deepest distress ; he had welcomed and provided for Lafay- 
ette's son when the boy was shipped off to America. As 
soon as he heard of Lafayette's release, he sent the lad home 
at his own expense, and with a loving letter to Lafayette. 
Other Americans hastened to show their appreciation, while 
two Englishwomen, strangers to the illustrious exile, oppor- 
tunely died and, in their wills, left to Lafayette legacies 
amounting to over fifteen thousand dollars. 

Holland, the only nation in Europe that was not influ- 
enced by envy or hatred, offered to Lafayette the exile, as 
generations before she had offered to the fugitive Puritans 
of England, a refuge and a home. In the town of Vianen, 
in Central Holland, not far from the city of Utrecht, the 
Lafayettes made their home. After awhile, however, 
Madame Lafayette discovered that there was a chance to 
save some of her own property ; so she went to France to 
recover what she could, to turn what she might into money 
to relieve her husband of the debts he so detested, and to re- 
port to him on the political condition of France, and when 
it would be safe for him to return. 

The political conditions soon took on a new phase. 
Victorious over the enemies of France and over France's 
republican rulers, Napoleon Bonaparte, after his dazzling 
though disastrous campaign amid the Pyramids, returned to 
France from his Egyptian campaign in 1799, to take a hand 
in the political upheaval in France, and to put a stern and 



WHY HE CAME TO AMERICA FOR THE FOURTH TIME. 221 

sudden end to the long reign of blood and terror there. He 
overthrew the Directory, as the rulers of France were called ; 
he drove back the allied armies that were threatenine France, 
and, himself, took the chief position as head of the nation. 
He called himself First Consul of the Republic ; but he was 
really, however, dictator and absolute ruler. The nation 
was tired of blood and welcomed the strong hand of a 
master. Again, as you see, France was not America. 

Lafayette was delighted. He did not yet see through 
the real Napoleon; he saw only the liberator, — the soldier 
who had saved the republic from anarchy, and placed it, as 
he believed, on the road to popular liberty. He was soon to 
learn the real truth. 

Madame Lafayette in France had already, by her shrewd- 
ness and ability, rescued so much of her own property from 
the wreck that she was able to make a home out of the 
chateau of Lagrange, about forty miles from Paris, left her 
by her murdered mother ; and now that the Directory, to 
which Lafayette would not yield, seemed about to be over- 
thrown by Bonaparte, she worked hard for her husband's 
return to France. 

At his wife's suggestion, Lafayette wrote to Napoleon a 
letter of thanks and confidence, although, as he declared, he 
wrote it to please her rather than himself ; for Lafayette 
never would and never could surrender his principles, and 
Napoleon was still a puzzle to him. 

Scarcely had that letter been received by Bonaparte, 



222 If'ffy HE CAME TO AMERICA EOR THE FOURTH TIME. 

before he seated himself in the chair of state as First 
Consul. Rumor had it that Lafayette was to be made 
general of the armies of France ; the republican governor of 
the Dutch city of Utrecht gave as the password for the day 
" Liberty, Paris, and Lafayette," and the fugitive, feeling that 
his long exile was indeed over, crossed the borders into 
France, and was soon in Paris — home again ! 

But he had been, as you boys say, " too previous." 
Liberty — the liberty Lafayette desired — had by no means 
come to France. Napoleon aimed to be the master and not 
the servant of France, and although, for policy, he had freed 
Lafayette, he had no wish to see the former hero of France 
— the father of France's constitutional liberty — at home 
again where he might, by his influence and his actions, be 
able to put obstacles in the path of Napoleon Bonaparte's 
progress to a throne. 

So when the First Consul heard that Lafayette had 
returned to France, he was very angry, and began to 
threaten and scold ; but once again Madame Lafayette, 
watchful for her husband's safety, went to Napoleon, and, 
while not lowering Lafayette's dignity nor excusing his 
principles, pleaded so earnestly for his comfort and spoke 
so eloquently of the love he bore for France and the sacri- 
fices he had made for his country, that Napoleon's anger was 
dispelled and his jealousy conquered. When, too, he felt 
assured that Lafayette had no desire to set himself against 
the First Consul nor to force his way into politics, the 



WHY HE CAME TO AMERICA FOR THE FOURTH TIME. 223 

master of France restored to the exile his citizenship, his 
property, and his rank in the army, all of which had been 
taken from him by the republican tyrants of France. 




MADAME LAFAYETTE AND NAPOLEON. 

" Shi pleaded so earnestly that Napoleotts anger ivas disfielled.^^ 

But Lafayette was not the man to sit quietly by and see 
the republic turned into an empire. The Consul and the gen- 
eral became friends, to a certain extent, because each one saw 
the strong qualities in the other. Napoleon, indeed, really 
admired, even though he distrusted Lafayette; and the patri- 



224 IJ^^y HE CAME TO AMERICA FOR THE FOURTH TIME. 

Otic Frenchman felt that, if but the First Consul were true to 
his promises, the French republic might be made as free and 
independent as the United States. 

" I have but one wish, general," said Lafayette to Napo- 
leon, — "a free government and you at the head of it." 

He soon discovered, however, that his idea of freedom 
was quite different from that of Napoleon. Each felt a fear 
as to the possible actions of the other, and their friendship 
was neither deep nor lasting. Lafayette soon began to fathom 
the ambitious designs of Napoleon, and he could not be 
bribed by the advances or offers that were made him. Napo- 
leon wished him to take office under the government ; he 
asked him to become a senator or to accept the agreeable 
post of ambassador to the United States ; but none of these 
would Lafayette take, fearing lest an obligation be attached ; 
and when he was made, by the vote of his neighbors, an 
"elector" of his department he won the enmity of Napoleon 
by refusing to vote to make the First Consul a dictator — or, 
as the title ran, " Consul for life." 

Gradually these two men who, had they but been able to 
work together for good results, might have done so much for 
France and liberty and hum^n progress, drew apart more and 
more. Napoleon, bent upon his personal advancement, could 
not forgive Lafayette's hostility to his plans. He called 
Lafayette a " noodle," and yet he wished for his good opinion 
above that of any man in France. He took a petty revenge 
by personal slights, such as withholding promotion from 



WIfV HE CAME TO AMERICA FOR THE FOURTH TIME. 225 

Lafayette's son George, who had become a gallant soldier 
of France; and yet, beneath his hostility, Napoleon had so 
great a respect for Lafayette's abilities that he would have 
purchased his friendship at almost any price. 

But, as you do not need to be told, Lafayette's friendship 
could not be purchased ; the love he gave to Washington the 
liberator could not be won by Napoleon the dictator. His 
love of real liberty was " not transferable." 

" Every time. General Bonaparte," said Lafayette one day, 
when the Consul complained of his attitude toward the gov- 
ernment, " that I am asked whether your government accords 
with my ideas of liberty, I shall answer No; because, when 
all is said and done, general, though I wish to be a prudent 
man, I will not be a false one ; I will not be a renegade." 

That was Lafayette's chief characteristic, — unflinching 
integrity and absolute loyalty to his convictions ; it is what 
has made good men great, as it made Washington and 
Lincoln the greatest of men. 

When at last Napoleon Bonaparte's ambition and greed 
for greatness led him to the final step of usurpation ; when 
he yielded to the temptation that only Washington was great 
enough to resist ; when the little.Corsican lieutenant ascended 
the throne of France as the Emperor Napoleon, the last hope, 
to which, in spite of all, Lafayette had held in this remarkable 
man, fell to the ground. He was disappointed, disgusted, dis- 
tressed. He resisted all attempts that were made to bring 
him over to the emperor, and, retiring to his estates in the 



226 WHY HE CAME TO AMERICA FOR 7 HE FOURTH TIME. 

country, at Lagrange and Chavaniac, he devoted himself to 
farming and tried to forget the sad ending to his lifelong 
dream of a free French republic. 

Napoleon was so deeply hurt by Lafayette's action that 
he was infuriated. Probably, too, he knew in his heart 
that Lafayette was as right as he was steadfast, and that 
increased his anger. 

" Gentlemen," he said, hotly, to his chief councillors, in 
the midst of a tirade against the men who had first upset 
the monarchy and brought about the Revolution in France, 
" this talk is not aimed at you ; I know your devotion to the 
throne. Everybody in France is corrected. I was thinking 
of the only man who is not, — Lafayette. He has never 
retreated an inch." 

It was a compliment to Lafayette's courage and loyalty, 
was it not? It was an acknowledgment of his greatness 
even while it was an attack upon him. To what extent 
Napoleon would have gone in his anger at Lafayette I can- 
not say. He would certainly have arrested and imprisoned 
him had he dared. But even this self-seeking emperor dared 
not go too far and touch the man who ^^'as still a hero 
to the French people — a hero because always a soldier of 
liberty. 

There came a great plot against the life of Napoleon, and 
the emperor would, if he could, have charged Lafayette with 
being concerned in it. 

" Don't be afraid," said his brother Joseph. " Wherever 



WHY HE CAME TO AMERICA FOR THE FOURTH TIME. 227 



there are aristocrats and kings you are certain not to find 
Lafayette." 

In the midst of his troubles with the emperor came more 
serious ones at home. Lafayette, by a fall on the ice, broke 
his thigh-bone, and was only saved by the torture of an 
unskilful surgery which kept 
his leg whole but left the 



general lame for life. 

" Never mind," he said, 
after the worst of the blunder 
was over; "humanity will 
benefit by the experiment. I 
am glad of it." 

Next his wife fell ill. 
Her terrible prison experi- 
ences in Paris and at 01- 
mutz had made her a 
hopeless invalid and slowly 
sapped her strength, until, 
on Christmas eve in the 
year 1807, she died — as 
noble an example of a real 
woman and of entire self-sacrifice as any we can find in 
history. 

Lafayette mourned her death deeply, and the tribute he 
paid to her memory was at once tender and strong. 

" During the thirty-four years of a union, in which the 




LAFAYETTE MOURNING FOR HIS WIFE. 

He titourjied her death deeply, and tJie trilmte he paid her 
was at once tender ajtd strong." 



228 ir//y HE CAME TO AMERICA EOR THE FOURTH TIME. 

love and the elevation, the delicacy and the generosity of her 
soul charmed, adorned, and honored my days," he says, " I 
was so much accustomed to all that she was to me, that 
I did not distinguish her from my own existence. Her heart 
wedded all that interested me. I thought that I loved her 
and needed her; but it is only in losing her that I can at 
last clearly see the wreck of me that remains for the rest of 
my life ; for there only remain for me memories of the woman 
to whom I owed the happiness of every moment, undimmed 
by any cloud." 

Her portrait, in a medallion, hung ever after about his 
neck. The anniversary of her death was always spent by 
him as a solitary and sacred anniversary, and the world can 
add to its regard for Lafayette the hero a yet deeper regard 
for the appreciative husband who could bear so closely 
on his heart the memory of " Adrienne," — his loving, faith- 
ful, devoted helper, friend, and wife. 

Through all the glory and all the grandeur of the Em- 
peror Napoleon's reign Lafayette remained in retirement at 
Lagrange. Amid the wreck and ruin of that dazzling empire 
Lafayette's first thought was for his dear France. When 
Napoleon was driven from France' and the allied armies of 
Europe entered the conquered capital, the general who once 
had saved the city wept over its present downfall and cap- 
ture. Then, when the brother of the murdered King Louis 
sat upon the throne as Louis XVIII., Lafayette dreamed 
again that a new France with a constitutional king might 



W//y HE CAME TO AMERICA EON THE EOURTH TIME. 22C) 

arise out of the ruins of Napoleon's empire, and he hastened 
to offer his services to the new king'. 

But Louis XVIII. of France was that same Count of 
Provence whom Lafayette, in his youth, as you may remem- 
ber, took pains to anger in order that he need not be 
attached to his person as a follower and courtier at the 
court of France. The new king, like the Bourbon he was, 
never forgot nor forgave. He hated Lafayette and his 
republican principles, and did not wish his services even 
while he felt that it would not do to belittle or make an 
enemy of the most independent man in France. 

And Lafayette, it must be confessed, did not like King 
Louis XVIII. But, even before this new King Louis had 
a chance to try his hand at governing, the exiled emperor at 
Elba came again to France, and by the strength and splen- 
dor of his name sent the weak Bourbon king flying for 
his life, and aroused all France to a brief but vociferous 
welcome for " the emperor." 

Lafayette could not believe in the pledges and promises 
that Napoleon, again on the throne, made to the people 
of France. But they sounded well ; so, hopeful as 
ever, the patriot of the Revolution became what he had 
refused to be under the absolute emperor, — a member 
of the Chamber of Deputies ; largely, however, it may 
be said, in order to restrain and check the power of the 
returned exile. 

Then came Waterloo and Napoleon's final downfall. 



230 ir//y HE CAME 10 AMERICA FOR THE FOURTH TIME. 

Lafayette had firmly demanded his abdication, and when 
the " Little Corporal " was sent a prisoner to St. Helena, 
and a provisional government was formed in France, 
Lafayette, the veteran of two revolutions, tried to remake the 
government under the same Declaration of Ri^-hts he had 
prepared for it in 1789. 

But times had changed ; and when Lafayette was sent by 
the government to make terms with the allied armies, the 
provisional government itself played false with him ; for, 
while he was striving for an honorable peace, they brought 
back the Bourbon King Louis XVIII., in whom Lafayette 
had no faith. 

The old patriot again found himself deceived in the 
rulers of France, who, to him, seemed blind to real liberty, 
and bent only on their own selfish desires. He was speedily 
stung to action by the stupid follies of this Bourbon king, 
whom he had as good as called a fool in his boyhood, and 
by those of his councillors who tried to help the king put 
things back where they were before the Revolution — as 
if things could ever be put back ! Still dreaming only of 
the welfare of France, Lafayette conspired for the overthrow 
of the Bourbon king, and had very nearly accomplished his 
purpose, when the plot was discovered. Again he tried, and 
again, by blunders, was the conspiracy brought to failure. 
Lafayette was known to be connected with these plots, but 
no convicting evidence could be found, and neither the king 
nor his ministers dared to make a prisoner of him or e\'en 



IV/fV HE CAME TO AMERICA FOR THE FOURTH TIME. 



231 



to call him to account. The old hero, you see, was still 
a very important man in France. 

Again he withdrew from public life and went to live 




THE HOME OF LAFAYETTE'S OLD AGE. 
The Chateau 0/ Lagrange, forty miles from Paris, 



among his children and grandchildren in the chateau of 
Lagrange. He was sixty-six years old ; but, even as he 
was a man among men, so he was a child with the children; 
adored and reverenced by them all ; the joy and centre of the 
big family which he gathered about him on his estates. Then, 



232 lV//y HE CAME TO AMERICA EOR THE EOURTH TIME. 

suddenly, he determined to go over the sea and again revisit 
America. 

Through all the ups and downs of his eventful life, while 
France alternately exalted and exiled him, and her terribly 
changing story changed his life as well, one land steadfastly 
honored, loved, and appreciated him, — the land for whose 
independence he had risked his life and fortune, in whose 
service he had been wounded, and in whose liberation he had 
borne a foremost part : America. 

Lafayette's correspondents in America were many, from 
Washington down. He watched America's steady growth 
and progress, rejoiced at it, and felt himself part of it. Her 
festival anniversaries were also his ; and even in the gloom 
of his prison at Olmutz, as I told you, two July holidays 
were always fervently kept by him, — the fourth of July 
which gave America independence, and the fourteenth of 
July when the destruction of the Bastile (that terrible prison 
of Paris) opened the way to French liberty. 

When France misunderstood and banished him, when 
the royalties of Europe feared and imprisoned him, and the 
loss of his large estates, swept away by confiscation, reduced 
him to poverty, it was America that remembered and sought 
to aid him. Morris and Monroe, American ministers to 
France, helped his wife with money and with protection in 
time of danger. Washington, as you know, again and again 
applied for Lafayette's release, or sought to lighten the 
horrors of his imprisonment, and there are few things that 



lV//y HE CAME TO AMERICA EOR THE EOURTH TIME. 233 

better show the delicacy, tact, and generosity of our noblest 
American than his letter to Madame Lafayette, accompany- 
ing the money sent for her necessities. 

" Madame," he wrote her from Philadelphia, where in 
1793 he was living as President of the United States, " if I 
had words that would convey to you an adequate idea of my 
feelings on the present situation of the Marquis de Lafayette, 
this letter would appear to you in a different garb. The sole 
object in writing to you now is to inform you that I have 
deposited in the hands of Nicholas Van Staphorst, of Amster- 
dam, two thousand three hundred and ten gilders, Holland 
currency, equal to two hundred guineas, subject to your 
orders. This sum is, I am certain, the least I am indebted 
for services rendered to me by the Marquis de Lafayette, of 
which I have never yet received the account. I could add 
much, but it is best, perhaps, that I should say little on this 
subject. Your goodness will supply the deficiency." 

What those " services " were Washington knew, although 
there was no account of them on paper ; and those services 
were equally appreciated by the American people whose 
sympathy went out to " the marquis " in all his troubles and 
sacrifices. Congress voted him money to pay an unclaimed 
salary for his services as a general in the American army ; 
eleven thousand acres of Ohio lands were voted him as a 
further compensation ; a large tract in Louisiana was given 
him, and when the vast territory of Louisiana came by pur- 
chase into the possession of the United States, Jefferson, 



234 



Ifl/i' HE CAME TO AMERICA FOR THE FOURTH FEME. 



then President, urged him to come to the new territory, 
which he would find to be, in its welcome to him, " a land 
trembling beneath his feet." The representatives of the 
United States in France followed up President Jefferson's 
request by a formal invitation to Lafayette to become the 
governor of the great Louisiana territory, and friends, 
in Congress and out, begged him to make America his 
home. 

But Lafayette was, as you know, first of all a French- 
man and a patriot. To him, even in defeat and exile, his 
duty was to serve France, and what Lafayette believed to be 
his duty he did, unhesitatingly and devotedly. 

When, in 1798, France and America seemed on the 
verge of war, Lafayette was deeply distressed, and he wrote 
to Washington assuring him that France, most of all, 
desired peace with America, though its exiled aristocrats 
and its foemen of England would do their best to force the 
two republics into war by their plots and schemes. 

" But you are there, my dear general," he said to Wash- 
ington, " independent of all parties, venerated by all ; and if, 
as I hope, your informant leads you to judge favorably of 
the disposition of the French government, your influence 
ought to prevent the breach from widening, and should 
ensure a noble and durable reconciliation." 

The reconciliation came through the wisdom and will 
of the rising master of France, Napoleon Bonaparte, who 
saw the folly and the danger of a war between the former 



JVJ/y HE CAME TO AMERICA EOR THE FOURTH TIME. 235 

allied nations, and Lafayette, still an exile from his native 
land, rejoiced greatly. 

So, through all the changes and experiences of those 
forty eventful years that had passed since he left America 
(" soon, however, to visit you again," as he had assured 
Washington in his farewell to the United States), his interest 
and affection alike had turned toward the land which had 
remembered him in misfortune, which had welcomed his son, 
a fugitive from France, and assisted his wife in her poverty, 
her privation, and her noble self-sacrifice. 

The republic too, you may be sure, had not forgotten the 
friend and hero of its days of struggle. The thirteen 
colonies had grown into twenty-four free, independent, and 
prosperous States ; their population had increased from three 
millions to twelve ; and their possessions stretched from sea 
to sea. The President of the United States of America was 
that James Monroe, soldier of the Revolution and minister 
to France, who had helped the Lafayettes in distress, and 
who loved " the marquis " as a brother and a patriot. 

The first half century of American independence drew 
near, and the Congress of the United States, recalling the 
stirring days that led to liberty and Lafayette's wonderful 
part therein, voted unanimously that President Monroe be 
requested to invite General Lafayette to visit America as the 
guest of the United States. 

President Monroe joyfully and very happily acted as 
Congress desired, and placed at the service of Lafayette 



236 IVHY HE CAME TO AMERICA EOR THE FOURTH TIME. 

a war-ship of the American navy to bring him across the 



sea. 



Lafayette received the invitation with pleasure. He was 




THE INVITATION FKOM AMERICA. 
' Lafayette received the itivitntioti zvit/i pleasure " 



sixty-seven years old and had gone through many harsh and 
sad experiences. But his heart was as young, his desire as 
great, his love for the United States as strong as ever. The 
sea voyage had few terrors for him in view of the welcome 



JVIfV HE CAME TO AMERICA FOR THE FOURTH TIME. 237 

awaiting him on the farther shore, — and it must be con- 
fessed that General Lafayette did enjoy hero-worship, when 
he played the part of the hero. 

He declined, however, to accept the proffered war-ship. 
He wished to visit the land of Washington without too 
much display, and he chose to sail by a regular passenger 
vessel, — a ship of peace rather than one of war. 

So, on the thirteenth of July, in the year 1824, bidding 
adieu to his dear home in France, Lafayette, with his son 
George Washington Lafayette and his private secretary, 
went aboard the American merchant-ship " Cadmus " at 
Havre, and set sail for America. 

The French government, with whom Lafayette, as an 
" independent," was no more popular than he had been 
under the empire and the republic, took great pains to 
prevent any show of popular enthusiasm for the famous 
Frenchman as he left his native shores. 

But as he sailed out of Havre, the American vessels in 
the harbor ran up all their flags in his honor, and fired their 
guns in joyful salute ; and with this intimation of America's 
rejoicing at his visit greeting his eyes and ears even as he 
left his silent fatherland, Lafayette sailed over the seas to 
the mightier welcome that was awaiting him on the shores 
of the great republic for whose independence he had fought, 
and in whose glory he had lot and part. 



238 1^0 W HE RETURNED TO ERANCE AND EAME. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

HOW HE RETURNED TO FRANCE AND FAME. 

'nr^HIS famous visit of Lafayette to the United States in 
1824 is one of the brightest spots in the history of 
America. It was the spontaneous welcome by an apprecia- 
tive people extended to a man whose story was familiar to 
all, and dear to all. 

They were the sons and successors of the men by whose 
side the young Frenchman had fought for independence. He 
was an old man now. The chief actors had passed away; 
only a few remained, after forty intervening years, to recall 
the old associations and extend a comrade's welcome to the 
gallant Frenchman whose whole life had been a struggle for 
popular liberty. 

But that welcome, extended by the sons of those who 
had known him, and by the land he had helped to free, was 
enthusiastic and American from the instant of his arrival in 
New York harbor on the fifteenth of August, 1824. 

Along the Battery-line thousands of soldiers were drawn 
up in salute ; behind them, forty thousand people gathered 
in welcome, and as the steamboat " Chancellor Livingston," 
bearing the nation's guest from the " Cadmus " off Staten 



HOJV HE RETURNED TO FRANCE AND FAME. 



239 



Island, and escorted by four other gaily decorated craft, 
brought Lafayette to the Battery - landing, the noise of 
echoing cheers, booming cannon, and stirring music told 
" the marquis " that America had not forgotten his services, 
and was proud to recall and commemorate them in this 
vociferous welcome. 

From one end to the other of the thirteen colonies which 
he had helped make into twenty-four sovereign States, from 
Maine to Georgia the nation's guest travelled in one continu- 
ous " personally conducted tour." He revisited the old places 
dear to him by the memories and associations of his early 
days. He pointed out the spot where, in his first battle, he 
fell wounded upon the field of Brandywine ; he traced the 
lines of the old redoubt at Yorktown, against which his sol- 
diers charged in triumph ; at Camden, in South Carolina, he 
laid the corner-stone of the monument erected to the memory 
of the famous German " baron " who had been his com- 
panion in his runaway voyage to America, the brave and 
mysterious De Kalb ; on the crest of Bunker Hill in Massa- 
chusetts he laid the corner-stone of America's most historic 
monument ; and before the tomb of Washington, at Mount 
Vernon, he stood with uncovered head and swiftly falling 
tears, with his son beside him, his memory recalling all 
that was good and gracious and fatherly and imperishable 
in that old-time friendship of the man and the boy — " my 
dear general " and " my young soldier." 

Receptions that would have been wearisome had not 



240 



HOW HE RETURNED TO FRANCE AND FAME. 



affection and enthusiasm been their source and spring ; 

speeches that would have bored a less appreciative soul ; 

journeys which, in the crude 
condition of those days of im- 
perfect communications, would 
have been fatiguing had not the 
French veteran joined to a strong 
constitution a curiosity to see new 
sections of a growing nation, — 
all these and all the other incon- 
veniences and dangers as well as 
the hospitalities and delights of a 
hero's triumphal progress he ac- 
cepted and enjoyed for the space 
of a year and a month, and the 
memory of that historic visit has 
never yet died from the recollec- 
tion of Americans. 

Even as I write these words 
I clip from a newspaper just de- 
livered at my door this extract 

" He stoodwitkuncmered head and s^vi/lly falling frOUl tllC lettCr Of aU CyC-WltnCSS, 
tears, hts son beside hintP 

Mr. Freeman Foster, of Arlington, 
Massachusetts, now an old man of ninety-two, then a boy of 
eighteen : 

" I also took part," he writes, in proud and garrulous 
recollection, " in the welcome extended to Lafayette, in 1824, 




THE LAFAYETTES AT THE TOMB OF 
WASHINGTON. 



HOW HE RETURNED TO FRANCE AND FAME. 24 1 

by the people of our country. The numbers now are small 
who were active at that period. I was eighteen years of age 
at that time, and living at Dunstable, now Nashua, New 
Hampshire, and, with several other young men, had organ- 
ized a band, playing on various musical instruments, clar- 
ionets, bugles, fifes, etc. When Lafayette visited the capi- 
tal of New Hampshire, the governor ordered out the 
Independent Company of Cadets of Dunstable, Captain Israel 
Hunt, commander, and they engaged our band for the occa- 
sion. We were ordered to escort Lafayette over the line from 
Massachusetts into New Hampshire. We went in carriages 
from Dunstable, and stayed over night at a tavern in the 
town of Bow. The next morning the governor ordered us to 
cross the Merrimac River into Pembroke. In a short time 
we met the procession escorting the man who stood next to 
Washington in the hearts of the people. He was in an 
open carriage drawn by six dapple-gray horses ; his son 
followed in a carriage drawn by four iron-grays ; his por- 
trait was on almost everything at that time, on our handker- 
chiefs, as well as in the hats we wore, and even if he had 
not been so prominent a figure, we should readily have rec- 
ognized him. We halted and saluted him. We then recrossed 
the bridge, escorting the procession to Concord, into the 
grounds in front of the State House. He entered the build- 
ing and addressed the people from the balcony. The day 
was warm, and we, tired with the march and our heavy 
uniforms, lay down on the grass to rest. If there should 



242 



HO IV HE RETURN ED TO ERASCE AND EAME. 



be any of that little company still li\'inL,^ this reminiscence 
will recall the events of that day to their minds." So the 
present and the past touch hands in grateful memories of 
that time of jubilee, and in the hearts of eighty millions of 

Americans to-day 
lives the memory 
of the man who 
knew and strug- 
gled for their in- 
dependence when 
their numbers 
scarce counted 
three millions, and 
who rejoiced with 
them again when, 
within half a cen- 
tury, he moved 
among those three 
millions already 
grown to twelve. 

It is one of the 

proud memories of 

my own family 

that my mother 

when a very small girl received a bow from Lafayette as 

his carriage paused before her home, and that he took a 

glass of water from my uncle's hand. And it was on 




LAFAYETTE IN AMERICA. 

Portrait of La/ayette by Sckfffcr, />ainteci at tlt£ titttt- 0/ Lafayettes last visit 
to the United States. 



HOW BE RETLRNED TO ERANCE AND EAME. 243 

that very day when escorted by a great procession, in the 
midst of music and shouts and cheers, he rode on to lay 
the corner-stone of Bunker Hill monument and hear from 
the lips of Daniel Webster, America's greatest orator, those 
famous words of welcome : " Fortunate, fortunate man ! with 
what measure of devotion will you not thank God for the 
circumstances of your extraordinary life! You are connected 
with both hemispheres and with two generations. Heaven 
saw fit to ordain that the electric spark of liberty should be 
conducted, through you, from the New World to the Old ; 
and we, who are now here to perform this duty of patriotism, 
have all of us, long ago, received it from our fathers to 
cherish your name and your virtues. You now behold the 
field, the renown of which reached you in the heart of France 
and caused a thrill in your ardent bosom. . . . Those who 
survived that day and whose lives have been prolonged to 
the present hour, are now around you. . . . Behold they now 
stretch forth their feeble arms to embrace you ! Behold, they 
raise their trembling voices to invoke the blessing of God on 
you and yours forever." 

Twice did Lafayette visit Washington, the capital of the 
nation ; twice did he receive the greeting and the thanks of 
Congress, and the treasurer of the United States was directed 
to pay to General Lafayette, as a substantial recognition and 
appreciation of services that could never be sufficiently 
recognized or appreciated, the sum of two hundred thousand 
dollars. 



244 JiOW HE RETURNED TO FRANCE AND FAME. 

In the presence of Congress he stood while every mem- 
ber sprang to his feet in applauding welcome, and the tall 
Speaker of the House, America's most popular man for a 
generation, Henry Clay of Kentucky, towering above the 
red-wigged, heavy-featured, homely but gracious and gallant 
old Frenchman, extended his hand and raised his voice in 
greeting. 

" The vain wish has been sometimes indulged," said 
Henry Clay to Lafayette, " that Providence would allow 
the patriot, after death, to return to his country and to con- 
template the immediate changes which had taken place ; to 
view the forests felled, the cities built, the mountains lev- 
elled, the canals cut, the highways constructed, the progress 
of the arts, the advancement of learning, and the increase of 
population. General, your present visit to the United States 
is a realization of the consoling object of that wish. You are 
in the midst of posterity. Everywhere you must have been 
struck with the great changes, physical and moral, which 
have occurred since you left us. Even this very city, bearing 
a venerated name, alike endeared to you and to us, has since 
emergfed from the forest which then covered its site. In one 
respect you behold us unaltered, and this is the sentiment of 
continued devotion to liberty, and of ardent affection and pro- 
found gratitude to your departed friend, the Father of his 
Country, and to you, and to your illustrious associates in the 
field and in the Cabinet, for the multiplied blessings which 
surround us, and for the very privilege of addressing you 



HOW HE RETURNED TO FRANCE AND FAME. 245 

which I now exercise. This sentiment, now fondly cherished 
by more than ten millions of people, will be transmitted with 
unabated vigor down the tide of time, through the countless 
millions who are destined to inhabit this continent to the 
latest posterity." 

So, welcomed by Congress, honored by the people, ringed 
about with shouting throngs, by music and salute, reception, 
banquet, and hero-worship to his heart's content, " the mar- 
quis," as Americans persisted in calling the man who had 
long since dropped what he esteemed a superfluous title, 
passed one happy year in the land where his name was held 
highest in esteem and affection. Then he sailed home to 
France. An American frigate, named the " Brandywine," in 
compliment to the hero's first blow for liberty on American 
soil, bore him across the seas and, even as he sailed, there 
lingered in his ears the words of farewell spoken, in behalf of 
the American people, by the President of the United States, 
John Quincy Adams, standing in the presence of those 
three Revolutionary patriots and ex-Presidents of the United 
States, Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe. 

" You are ours, sir," said President Adams, " by that 
unshaken sentiment of gratitude for your services which is 
a precious portion of our inheritance; ours by that tie of 
love, stronger than death, which has linked your name for 
the endless ages of time with the name of Washington. 
At the painful moment of parting with you we take comfort 
in the thought that, wherever you may be, to the last 



246 



JfOlV HE RETURNED TO FRANCE AND FAME. 



pulsation of your heart, our country will ever be present to 
your affections. And a cheering consolation assures us that 
we are not called to sorrow, — most of all that we shall see 
your face no more, — for we shall indulge the pleasing 
anticipation of beholding our friend again. In the name 




LAFAYETTE'S FAREWELL TO AMERICA. 
Lafiiyelte. Jeffrrsan. Madison, Adams, and Monrite saying good-bye at the tl'liite House. From portraits. 



of the whole people of the United States, I bid you a 
reluctant and affectionate farewell." 

It was a peculiar thing in all Lafayette's leave-takings 
from America, that they were always in the spirit of the 
song, " Say au rcvoir but not good-bye." It was " farewell 



HO IV HE RETURNED TO FRANCE AND FAME. 247 

for the present ; I hope to come again." And even in this 
last departure from American soil, the happy, or what is 
called the optimistic side of Lafayette's nature, was dis- 
played. For he declared that he really hoped to come to 
America again. But he never did. 

The liberty he left in America he did not find in France. 
The people who had overthrown tyranny were being dragged 
within its influence again ; for a Bourbon king once more 
sat on the throne of France, and the royalists, who hated the 
very name of liberty, so disliked Lafayette and resented 
the outpourings of welcome which had been showered upon 
him by the people of the United States that they gave him 
no sign of greeting on his return and sent files of soldiers 
to charge upon and drive away the throngs of people 
gathered at Rouen to welcome the home-returning hero of 
liberty. Indeed, it was only after a long and serious dis- 
cussion that the harbor forts at Havre were allowed to 
return the salute of the U. S. frigate " Brandywine," bringing 
Lafayette home to France once more. 

But the people were not to be put down by drawn swords 
or by sabre-charges, when they were determined to honor a 
hero of the people. Such they regarded Lafayette ; for, even 
like the king who detested him, the people recognized the 
strength and integrity of the one man whose devotion to 
liberty was inextinguishable. 

" There is a man who never changes," cried the Bourbon 
king. And the people, in quite another spirit, echoed the 



248 HOW HE RETURNED TO FRANCE AND FAME. 

words of the king and welcomed Lafayette on his return 
from America with cheers and enthusiasm. 

The government of France feared Lafayette in 1825, just 
as Napoleon had in 1805, as the Revolutionists had in 1795, 
as the aristocrats had in 1785. 

" He will lead away the people ! " that was always the 
fear with regard to Lafayette that existed in the minds of 
the rulers of France. It was to be made a fact before 
long. 

In 1830, Charles X., the Bourbon king of France, true to 
the ill-favored traditions of his family, sought to reenslave 
the people of France by violating their liberties and over- 
throwing their constitution. Instead, the people of France 
overthrew King Charles and his throne, and, rising in 
revolution, drove the Bourbon from France. 

To do this, they summoned Lafayette from his farm at 
Lagrange and asked him to take command of the national 
guard, — the Forces of France, as it was called. 

" I will not refuse," said the old hero, without hesitating. 
" I will behave at seventy-three as I did at thirty-two." 

He took possession of Paris, drove out the hired troops 
of the king, and so strengthened the cause of the people and 
their determination for constitutional liberty, that King 
Charles, in fear alike for his own crown and his life, weak- 
ened in his stubbornness and humbly sent his surrender to 
Lafayette. 

"It is too late now," Lafayette declared. "We have 




GENERAL LAFAYETTE, COMM ANDER-IX-C HIEF OF THE FORCES OF FRANCE, 

From a pniuthig hy Court. 



HOW HE RETURNED TO FRANCE AND FAME. 



251 



revoked the ordinances ourselves. Charles X. has ceased 
to reign." 

It was indeed true. The people, led by Lafayette, had 
asserted their rights, and the Bourbon King Charles went 
sadly off into exile, saying hard things of " that old republi- 
can, Lafayette," who had, he declared, " caused all the 
mischief." 

It was Friday, the thirtieth of July, 1830, that the king 
was dethroned and the Deputies made plans for a new one. 
There was no hesitation in the minds of the people as to 
who should stand at the head of the nation either as king 
or as governor. They demanded Lafayette. 

The French captain of the American merchant-ship that 
hurried the discrowned King Charles away from France 
himself told the ex-king, " If Lafayette, during the recent 
events, had desired the crown, he could have obtained it. I 
myself was a witness to the enthusiasm that the sight of 
him inspired among the people." 

But the old hero of the French people, who had been a 
liberty lover from his boyhood, and had learned his lessons 
in freedom, integrity, and patriotism by the side of Washing- 
ton, that spotless patriot who himself had indignantly 
spurned the offer of a crown, as indignantly silenced such 
suggestions, and stood true to his convictions and his 
principles. 

When the deputies offered to the republican prince, Louis 
Philippe, Duke of Orleans, the head of the state, under the 



252 HOW HE RETURNED TO FRANCE AND FAME. 

title of Lieutenant-Governor of the French, the people 
assembled in vast crowds before the City Hall of Paris to 
shout for Lafayette and the Constitution ; but they showed 
no enthusiasm for the prince presented to them as their 
governor. The French people had grown to be an impor- 
tant factor in deciding the affairs of France since the days 
of the Revolution, and without the support of the people the 
Duke of Orleans would be but a poor figure-head. 

To secure this support the members of the Chamber of 
Deputies (the Congress of France) marched in procession 
escorting Louis Philippe to the City Hall in Paris. There 
was Lafayette ; there were the troops ; there were the peo- 
ple ; and the cries of " Hurrah for the Duke of Orleans " 
were drowned by the swelling " Hurrah for liberty ! " 

All now depended upon Lafayette. Had he said but one 
word the people would have made him king in spite of him- 
self. But the veteran republican felt that at last that golden 
hour so long desired by him for France had come. Here 
was the opportunity to give to France a constitutional king, 
ruling not by divine right nor territorial possession but by 
the will of the people, — not merely a king of France but a 
king of the French. 

The Duke of Orleans had made all necessary promises 
and accepted all the constitutional requirements. It now 
only remained for the people to accept him. But the 
people hesitated ; they did not altogether trust a royal 
prince. 



HOW HE RETURNED TO FRANCE AND FAME. 



253 



Then Lafayette acted. He suddenly appeared upon the 
balcony of the City Hall, and as the people recognized the 
old patriot they broke into a great burst of cheers. But he 
waved them into silence, 
and presented to them the 
man at his side. It was 
the Duke of Orleans ; his 
arm was linked with that 
of Lafayette, and in his 
hand he held, not the lily 
flag of the distrusted Bour- 
bons, but the beloved tri- 
color of the French people. 

" Hurrah for the Con- 
stitution ! Long live the 
Duke of Orleans ! " shouted 
the people, won to the side 
of the prince by Lafay- 
ette's presence and words. 
And Louis Philippe, Duke 
of Orleans, became king 
of the French, while La- 
fayette had added one 
more act of patriotism to 
his record. He deliberately 

declmed the crown he lafayette and the duke of Orleans. 

«^ " ,^U 4. K^,T^ ...^.-»^ ^ ^^ A "-^^ "^vas the Duke of Orleans, his arm in that of Lafayette 

might have worn, and and in his kaL the tncllor of the French pUu:' 




^54 



HO IV HE RETURNED TO FRANCE AND FAAIE. 



himself placed it upon the head of the man for whom he had 
won acceptance by the people. 

But though the old patriot had seen his principles 
triumph his work was not yet done. His presence was 
needed at the court. For a new ruler in France has but an un- 
stable seat, and with such a one it has ever been as Shake- 
speare declared, " Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown." 

Lafayette knew this as well as any one, and when the 
throne of the neighboring kingdom of Belgium, made vacant 
by a rising of the people, was offered to Lafayette, he again 
declined to be a king. 

" What would I do with a crown ! " exclaimed the old 
republican. " Why, it would suit me about as much as a ring 
would become a cat," and again he pushed aside the offer of 
royalty. 

In Paris the people still clamored for their rights and 
objected to any laws that would restrict their independence. 
Mobs threatened the palace and the Chamber of Deputies, 
and could only be stilled when Lafayette appeared as Com- 
mander of the National Guard and declared that if he were 
to be responsible for public order the people must help him 
'by being orderly. 

At once the mobs subsided, and when on an August day 
in 1830 Lafayette marched his reorganized National Guard, 
thirty thousand strong, in review before the king, he, more 
than king or prince, was recognized as the most popular man 
in France. 




ONE OF THE LAST PORTRAITS OF LAFAYETTE. 
Front an engraving hy Gfille. 



HOW HE RETURNED TO FRANCE AND FAME. 257 

In fact, SO great was his popularity that both king and 
court grew envious, fearing that, after all, Lafayette might be 
made king of the French. So they schemed and plotted to 
get rid of him or send him into exile; but the people 
fathomed their jealousy and again burst out into mobs and 
threatening, only again to be quieted and dispersed by 
Lafayette's personal influence. 

But Lafayette, brave patriot and true Frenchman though 
he was, could not long stand the strain of thus acting as " a 
buffer " between the people and the king. His age and the 
exertion and hardships of his life began to wear upon him. 
He asked to be relieved of his duties and resigned his office 
as Commander of the National Guard. 

For awhile as a Deputy he interested himself in national 
affairs, distrusting more and more the king he had given to 
the people as he saw how the old Bourbon strain of tyranny 
would now and then break out. But he preached loyalty to 
the government they had founded as the chief duty of the 
people, and when, in i<S32, a revolution seemed imminent, 
Lafayette would have no part in it, and by his stern and 
contemptuous words quickly brought it to nothing. 

It was his last public effort. A sudden and rapid illness, 
due, like that which had killed Washington, to a neglected 
and dangerous cold, caught in bad weather, broke his sturdy 
constitution and slowly sapped his strength, and, in his city 
home in Paris, on the twenty-seeoTTd~of May, in the year 1834, 
Lafayette died ; and the whole world mourned. 



258 HOW HE RETURNED TO FRANCE AND FAME. 

Gathered about him in his last hours was his large 
family, — children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. 
And when his body was borne through the streets of Paris, 
to be laid beside that of his beloved wife in the obscure little 
cemetery of Picpus, in the heart of the great capital, a vast 
throng followed him to his grave. As the tidings went 
abroad the bells of five nations tolled out their sorrow; 
the army and navy of the United States paid to the memory 
of Lafayette the same honors they had yielded to Washing- 
ton; the Congress of the United States went into mourning 
for thirty days, while America vowed never to forget him — 
and America never has. 

All the world recognized that a great and historic char- 
acter had been taken from the scene of his restless and 
long-continued activity. France realized the loss of its 
leading patriot, its sturdiest defender, its safest guide; 
America mourned over the departure of a man who, more 
than any other, had connected the present and the past, and 
for over half a century had kept alive, by his actual existence, 
the memories of those great men who, with George Washing- 
ton as their leader, had fought their way to independence, 
progress, and power. 

The life of Lafayette was, as you have seen, a long and 
busy one. Men deny him greatness, and yet few men have 
stamped their names and deeds more firmly upon the history 
of the world. Neglected in France by the rapid change of 
events that have marked the history of that impressible nation 



HOW HE RETURNED TO FRANCE AND FAME. 



259 



since his death, America has ever held the name and memory 
of Lafayette in dear and grateful remembrance. His name, 
next to that of Washington, 
is the favored one selected 
by Americans in christening 
their children, their towns, 
streets, mercantile compan- 
ies, and popular enterprises ; 
statues and monuments have 
been raised to his memory ; 
and, linked to that of Wash- 
ington, the name of Lafay- 
ette stands as the embodi- 
ment of friendship, valor, 
and faith in the days of 
the American Revolution. 

In his oration at the 
dedication of the splendid 
surrender monument at 
Yorktown on the nineteenth 
of October, 1881, Robert C. 
Winthrop, of Massachusetts, 
said : " It was from the lips 
of James Madison under 
his own roof at Montpelier 
that I learned to think and speak of Lafayette, not merely 
as an ardent lover of liberty, a bosom friend of Wash- 




IN THE NATIONAL CAPITAL. 

Mointinent to the itwi/rayy of Lafayette, iti La/ityette 
Square, WashtJigtoti, near the White House. 



26o HO IV HE RETURNED TO FRANCE AND FAME. 

ingfton, and a brave and disinterested volunteer for 
American independence, — leading the way, as a pioneer, for 
France to follow, — but as a man of eminent practical ability, 
and as great, in all true senses of that term, as he was 
chivalrous and generous and good. Honor to his memory 
this day from every American heart and tongue." 

That honor has been and will be forever given him by 
every American to whom America's liberty, strength, and 
glory are dear. And while appreciating the worth of Lafay- 
ette to Americans as the man to whose unflagging en- 
thusiasm, devotion, and sacrifices the success of" the 
independence of the republic was so largely due, let all 
Americans also accord to " the marquis," the friend of 
America, that wider meed of praise, too long withheld from 
him, as to a great extent the shaper and maker, by his zeal 
and his acts, of the progress of France and the enfranchise- 
ment of Europe. For these came, through blood and tears, 
indeed, but they came at last largely through the influence 
and example of the one Frenchman who remained ever true 
to the principles adopted by him in boyhood and dear to 
him in old age, — the glorious principles of " liberty, equality, 
fraternity," for which he fought beneath the stars and stripes, 
for which he contended by the side of W^ashington, and for 
which he labored alike in America and in his owm cherished 
fatherland, a notable figure in the sight of all the world. 



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'^"''-'2^^ 



